Syllable Clapping with Flowers

Spring is just wonderful... Just when I think I'm going to cave in and go cuckoo from winter, spring has come to the rescue. :-)

So, celebrate the season by rhythm practice!

Today, we used flowers. This one is great because we'll:

• Learn or review flower names.
• Incorporate rhythm by chanting the syllables of each flower name.
• Create our own colorful "gardens"

You'll need either pictures of flowers, or you can use silk flowers, if you have enough varieties laying around (we don't...).  I printed off some various flowers with different syllable-length-names by doing an internet search for coloring pages of each flower.
If you want to print them out in color, look for free clipart images of each flower.

Here are the ones we used....

One syllable: Rose, Fern (<-- I know it's not a flower, but I needed another one-syllable one that the kiddos were sort of familiar with...)
Two Syllables: Tulip, Lily, Daisy
Three Syllables: Daffodil, Buttercup, Sunflower
(If you want a four-syllable one, you could use Dandelion, or some other one... but we just used the ones above.)

You can paste each into a Word Doc, adjust the size, and type the flower name.
Print off, cut out and you're good to go.

Other materials: construction paper (background... we used blue for the sky), some extra stems or leaves, brown paper for soil on the ground, crayons/markers/paint and glue.

Gather kiddos and have them color flowers (if needed). I helped them choose a correct or at least appropriate color for each one as we rehearsed their names...

Next, get your "garden bed" ready:

Little J really wanted a leaf in the middle of his page.... :-)

Next, choose two or three flowers to arrange on the page (don't glue yet).
As child chooses each flower, clap and chant that flower's name and have them imitate it back.

Once all three have been chosen, clap them rhythmically in a sing-songy way.
Chant it loud and proud along with them.

 Sometimes it helps to point along once in a while....

And, not every activity appeals to all children...

He did jump in once in a while, if no one was paying attention. Otherwise, he got shy. Poor little J... :-)


After you've created a few different "gardens," finish off by having them glue on their favorite ones, then either chant that one as the grand finale, or if you've exhausted their focus, say what a wonderful job they did and release them to go play. :-)

Have fun!

Buckets of Fun

Today was a lovely day... to go outside and make some noise.
We have some buckets laying around, which many of you do as well.... So, we continued in our drum theme this week and did some simple tasks with the buckets.

All you need for this is a kid, a bucket, and a few sticks of some sort. We do have drum sticks around the house, but they have been moved somewhere by some toddler who will remain nameless... so we used markers today.

You'll need a bucket-drum for each kiddo....

We gave one to the baby, but he had other plans...

My goals today were to do simple imitation patterns and descriptive sounds.

So, after a bit of 'free drumming,'  mom started by playing a simple rhythm      (ta, ti-ti. Or, Long, quick-quick, etc. etc....)
and they had to imitate. K (4) did fine, J (2) banged back roughly the same thing every time.  :-)

We went around and each tried to "imitate" the sounds made by the one who's turn it was.
J often did sound effects with his demonstrations. Very amusing.

Whereas your student may desire to just bang aimlessly, to develop rhythm and musicianship, do your best to get them thinking about imitation, patterns, loud/soft, fast/slow, etc...

****Remember, your role is demonstration! Show them how it is done correctly and help them with ideas. They want to succeed in these little things and they need you to help them to understand and to inspire them.

Next, we described sounds. For example,

"How would it sound if we were tiptoeing?"  or "What would it sound like if we were marching?" 

Speed: 

"What if we were running away from a big monster?"  or  "What if we were walking very, very slow?" 

"What if we were walking first, then started to race?" 

Then... what different ways can you make noise on the drum?

Here's K dropping his "sticks" rather than striking. 

So simple, so much potential.... so fun! Enjoy!

Fruit Salad

I am seriously missing summer fruit.... strawberries, blueberries, peaches... aahhh....
So, I remembered doing this activity with my Kindergarten class, so I thought J and K might like it too.

This one is oh-so easy and colorful too!
The goal is to get them thinking rhythmically by clapping out the syllables of the various fruit names.

Think about each fruit's syllables:
For example, STRAW-berr-y  or BLUE-berr-y or ba-NA-na are all three syllable words and thus get one clap on each syllable.
APP-le, KI-wi, OR-ange all get two claps.
Grapes, Pear, Peach all get one clap.

So, here's what we did:

Go online and get some free clip art of each fruit you want to use. I definitely included ones that I knew were favorites of my kiddos, since I was wondering if this would be a stretch to get them to enjoy this... ya never know. :-)

Put the pics in a Word Document and type the name underneath.
Print off the fruit pics with name underneath.
Cut and paste or tape onto colorful construction paper.

Get a plate (we used plastic).

Call kiddos to come make a fruit salad!
K and J were both pretty stoked - Yay!

Have kiddo/s look at the fruit:

Then they pick out two, three or four (depending on age/ability) to put on the plate.

You can chant something like "Sarah's got a fruit salad, isn't that great! Let's see what she puts on the plate!" while they're selecting fruit.

When they've put the fruit on the plate, take each and put them in a line on the floor.
Chant each fruit name rhythmically while clapping each syllable.

This one was "APP   - le,   CHER- ries,   KI      -wi"
                    CLAP-clap, CLAP- clap,  CLAP-clap

Not very diverse with the combination of 1's, 2's and 3's, but we got better as we went along. :-)


You as parent will be demonstrating as you go - encourage them to join in as they can. K (who is 4) could do it on his own after a little while. J (who is 2) just clapped the number of claps on each word - but they both had fun combining different fruits and clapping the names out rhythmically!
Be as enthusiastic as you can and make it as rhythmically interesting as you know how!

Have fun! And then go make a smoothie to celebrate all your hard work. :-)

And.... the BEST ever book to pair with this activity? 

"Jamberry" by Bruce Degen. Love it. 

Work With What You Have

I have come to the realization that I will not have children who will sit quietly in a circle and sing "Little Boy Blue" with angelic smiles and voices.

My experience would be boys starting nicely, but then getting up, jumping in place, then crashing on the ground laughing while they try to outdo each other with their awesome crash.... to the background of mommy still trying to sing, "Little boy blue, come blow your horn...."

So, I thought... I'll take WHAT I can WHEN I can.... Often, it comes in simple things like bowls and spoons. I took these bowls out for little K, but he set them up.  He experimented with different timbres... although he didn't know he was doing this (mua-ha-ha!). And, I think I even heard him doing some patterns.

Pattern meaning - a repetition of a group of notes - fast or slow.
For example: HIT, hit-hit, HIT, hit-hit.
Or: hit-hit-hit-hit. BANG. hit-hit-hit-hit. BANG

As the hearer, we can encourage our kiddos in making music (which when boiled down, is sometimes just organized sound) by demonstrating simple patterns to them.

For example, parent (sitting down next to kiddo with spoons in hand) does this:
BANG! tap-tap
Parent says: "You do that!"
Kiddo: BANG!
Parent: repeats BANG! tap-tap. "Can you do that?"
Kiddo: Bang! tap.... (gives parent questioning look)
Parent: Great job!

And it continues from there....

Basically - show your kids patterns whenever possible. Encourage them to mimic simple ones.
Don't be discouraged if they can't do it perfectly right away. Give them time to work it out, but keep showing them at various times.
You'll be pleasantly surprised when you hear them making some patterns of their own when you're not sitting next to them.

Oh, and if using bowls for drums, use different materials and sizes - metal, plastic, small, large, tall, round, etc... The more variety, the more experimentation with different timbres!

Have fun!