Blue Bugs Lesson #8

 Teacher Tidbits:

Parents come next week & tuition is due!

Registration for next fall is open! Make sure to follow the instructions in your email on how to enroll.  It's a two step process: 1) Pay the registration fee, 2) enroll in class time and reserve materials.  If you have questions, please contact me. 

There may be some of you who are wondering whether your child should continue on to the 2nd year or not. Sometimes the four year olds need one more go around with the first year curriculum in order to solidify the skills and concepts required for 2nd year. The following behaviors will help you determine if this is a better alternative.

1. Can’t sing and sign solfeg at the same time.
2. Don’t know the solfeg signs.
3. Don’t understand the concepts of a step, skip, or a leap.
4. They don’t understand that their claps should match the syllables of the bug names.
5. They have a hard time understanding any concept or skill when it’s presented to them.
6. They have a hard time paying attention during the activities.

If your student is showing 3 or more of these signs it’s because, 1.) They are simply too young and need more time to physically develop or 2.) They haven’t had adequate practice/listening time or exposure to the concepts. You will need to determine if it’s 1 or 2. If you feel they haven't had adequate exposure, you could possibly "play" through the summer and get them ready to move on to 2nd year. If you think it is simply their age and time will help, you should seriously consider having them repeat.

If you decide to repeat first year with me, you will need to let me know ASAP as I have contacted the people on my waiting list.
Purpose in the Play:
Are You Sleeping?
This song reinforces the solfeg hand signs. Very soon we’ll sing in a round, letting us hear multiple layers of music. Hearing music in our head and being able to stay on the part we are singing is a great skill for musicians to learn.
B-I-N-G-O
Who knew BINGO had such music concepts to learn from? When we sing it, we feel the quiet internal beats and learn to anticipate when to clap. It's full of rich musical concepts.
Chords in Pieces - auditation (hear in your head)
As we sang “Chords in Pieces” we left out some of the chords and auditated them in our heads instead of singing them aloud. Again, much of the learning in 1st year is subconscious and unseen. The musical development that is happening to your little musician right now won't be seen by the naked eye, but will be harvested down the road!
Bug Rhythms
We mixed up the order of the bugs and with no verbal cues we sang and clapped the bug rhythms. Your amazing kiddos were able to do “Can’t Bug Me” perfectly! Wow, they are learning so quickly.
Making Musicians:
It is easy to underestimate the significance of solfege. It helps us label something abstract like notes, uses whole body involvement, helps us understand scales and key signatures, aids in learning about intervals, helps us sight read/sing music, and so much more! Click here to read about the many reasons why we use solfege in Let's Play Music!