Green Turtle Shells Lesson #12
Lesson #12
The holidays are coming near! There will be no class the week of Thanksgiving, and we will finish the semester on December 9 or 10 (depending which class you're in). This is NOT the time to fall by the wayside - keep up the practicing! The last class of the semester will be a NEW format - Station Day. Parents and children will attend together rotate around a series of stations - games, mostly. They're intended to celebrate your child's new theory and piano skills, and one of the stations, we will discuss individual children's progress together. It is a class you won't want to miss, and is former students' favorite class of the semester!
Mystery Bug
We played a new rhythm game called Mystery Bug. 3 separate rhythm cards are laid out on the 1st, 2nd, and 4th beat. The 3rd beat is empty and is the Mystery Bug. The entire 4 count measure is played and the students identified which rhythm (bug) was missing on the 3rd beat. Then we all counted and played the entire 4 count measure. You can play a variation of this at home by clapping different bugs and inviting your child to clap AND say what bug they heard. Ear training, rhythm training and internalizing the steady beat is happening all at once!
Brown Jug
The Brown Jug game is another fun activity to play at home with a parent or whole family. You just need a playground ball and a little bit of room to roll and catch. It is easier at first to chant "roll, catch" and then begin the song. This is a great way to emphasize how the hands and body must keep the beat while making music!
Echo Edna
This week Echo Edna placed various patterns of steps and skips on the board to sight read. She invited us to look at the board and think of two questions before we played the pattern. 1) Is it a step or skip? AND 2) Does it go up or down? Walking through both of these steps will help in all sight reading as well as the theory assignment this week.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, we can find and play the Red, Blue and Yellow chords in 5 Fat Turkeys from last year!