Letter M week was Marvelous, Magnificant, Miraculous, and Much easier to find adjectives for than some of our previous letters! Throughout the week, the students were immersed in different forms of music. They got to meet some musical guests and even make music themselves!
On Monday and Tuesday morning, the students completed their letter M tracing and identification activity sheets. Some of the M words included: mailboxes, moons, monkeys, muffins, and more! The teachers were very impressed with the quality of the students’ work. One after another, the students meticulously colored and completed their pictures then held up their work for the teachers to admire. One student in particular was so proud, he brought his morning work around, not only to his teachers, but to all his friends who were working in different stations around the room. His teachers and classmates were equally impressed by his hardwork!
On Monday afternoon, the teachers led music class by asking, “Is a song still music if it doesn’t have anyone singing words?” Initially this puzzled the students as they tried to come up with an answer. Some students felt very stronlgy that music had to have words while others were a little unsure and hesitated to answer. The answer came when one student pointed out that our rest time classical music CD does not have any words in it- just instruments – and it is still music. The teachers were ecstatic to hear such an insightful response! The conversation about a unique type of music – music without words, otherwise known as instrumental music, quickly picked up. To further reinforce the idea, the teachers played a variety of instrumental music. After listening carefully, the students noted that they liked music with words and music with only instruments was great too!
On Tuesday afternoon, the students were paid a very special visit by a Musical Mommy. Lorraine, the mother of a four year old student, came in and performed a beautiful piano concert for all of the students to enjoy. Although the students enjoyed listening to instrumental music on CDs the day before, it was clear that Lorriane’s live instrumental performance was truly captivating! Click below to view a short clip from Lorraine’s performance. Thanks again!
The fun continued on Wednesday when the teachers surprised the students and had Spanish in the morning! Working in small groups, the students had to practice using their listening ears to help identify las comidas (the food). Click below to view one group as they work with Miss Saily in the “Spanish Station”.
On Wednesday afternoon, another musical guest came to visit and her name was Marci! Marci brought a guitar with her which made for some amazing musical fun! The students sang along with Marci to several classroom favorites and then had a turn at strumming the guitar themselves.
Thursday was a particularly exciting day at Park Prep because it was Preschool Idol Day! Taking a “note” from the Fox hit series American Idol, the teachers split the students up into small groups and began rehearsing their performances. With a little help from the dress-up area, the groups were assembled and ready to rock! Here are some highlights of the group performances.
In the afternoon, the students got to perform individually like the real American Idols do! Here are some of the highlighted solo performances.
Needless to say, the students (and teachers) LOVED Preschool Idol and could hardly wait until the next season!
Before morning meeting on Friday, the teachers prepared a few of the classroom CDs that would help teach the students about the different genres of music that people can enjoy! The students had a blast listening to the different genres and discussing how they sounded alike or in most cases, very different! Here is a list of the songs that the students listened to.
Classical Music – Beethoven’s “Fur Elise”
Rap/Hip-Hop Music – Bust a Nursery Rhyme – “Jack and Jill”
Country/Western Music – John Denver’s – Thank God I’m a Country Boy!
Jazz Music – Duke Ellington’s – Take the A’ Train
Ragae/Island Music – Bob Marley’s – Three Little Birds
Rock N’ Roll Music – Elvis Presley’s – Jailhouse Rock
Dance/Electronica Music – Axel F’s – Crazy Frog Remix – This song proved to be the perfect lead in to Friday’s Dance Party!
The final musical guest of the week came on Friday afternoon – Guitar Gary! The students were so excited to meet Guitar Gary and hear some of his favorite songs- especially this one!
Well, that is all for Letter M Week. Thank you to all of the wonderful music performers that visited school this week! We hope you enjoyed this week’s blog entry. As always, thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week!
– PPA