Weekly Activities

We finished the summative project Wendy started this week giving the children the opportunity to express and show their understanding of the unit of inquiry. All of the children I worked with chose to express through painting. Julia, Chloe, Adyson and Natalya chose the  piece " African Tribal Orchestra - Sundown in Madagaskar."  Julia called the group "The Madagascar Girls."  Chloe and Julia also sang while they painted. Chloe made up her own song while Julia sang "Rain, Rain Go Away." Rocco was the only child to choose " Vivaldi - La tempesta di mare" to paint to.   He said the music reminded him of Trinidad and that he missed Tobago.   Next week, we will begin our formative week for the unit of inquiry " How people use decoration and how this helps us learn about each other."

We completed our maracas this week. The children painted the maracas while listening to a steel drum band.  It was wonderful to see the children put so much thought into the decoration of their instruments.  After we finished, we continued with learning about beat and rhythm using the tune "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." Tapping the tune on our noses. This unit is coming to an end as next week is our summative week. The finished product.

At the beginning of our inquiry, the children expressed interest in making instruments.  We decided to make two types of musical shakers.  The first shaker we made used paper cups, different types of beads and popcorn kernels.  The children experimented with sound by placing the different items in the shaker to produce different sounds.  The children were able to identify that placing the various items in the cups different sounds were created. The second shaker  made used a balloon and popcorn kernels.  The children used newspaper and a flour paste to papier mache the balloons.  Once the balloons dry, the shakers will be decorated. Continuing with our inquiry into music around the world, we listened and danced to music from Angola.  The children were able to identify  the sounds of the African drums and shakers by listening to the music.

What is princess music?  Before we could find the music, we had to determine what and who a princess is. The children identified that a princess is a female with long hair, a long dress, and nice shoes.  We viewed images of woman, from all over the world, dressed in their traditional attire to help define a princess.  The children said that a princess does not just have to be a Disney princess.  All of these women were considered princesses.  It was interesting to see that the music associated with these women's culture was not always considered princess music.  After listening to each piece of music, the children would vote as to whether or not the music was deemed princess music.  The results:  opera music-split decision, Chinese opera music-unanimous "yes" and Pow Wow music was a definitive "no". The children also used the smart board to identify how each piece of music made them feel.  Next week, we will continue to look at music and in...

We continued with the teacher question "how does music make us think and feel?"  We listened to Coast Salish music by the Sto:Lo Voices which is a group comprised of family members from the Sto:lo and Chehalis people of the Fraser Valley.  The children were captivated by the sound of the drums and began to clap to the beat.   After listening to the "Salmon Song", the children had different thoughts and reflections of how the song made them feel.   Natalya: I liked the girls' voices. Leighton: The song made me feel sad and alone. It made me think of being the forest by myself. Rocco:  I feel happy, I like the drums. Chloe: I feel sad like crying. Hao Hao: I like fish. We watched some you tube videos of the   Tsatsu Stalqayu   (Coastal Wolfpack) singing and dancing to Coast Salish songs. The children painted to the Coast Salish music. At the end of group today, some children asked if we could listen to princess music.  I asked wha...