Music Around the World--Session 3--Week 2--Africa

We had so much fun in our Music Around the World Class today! We began our morning by reviewing our songs from last week. Ask your child to sing "It's a Small World" and "Kookaburra" for you! We are really working hard to learn the words for these two songs. After a quick review, we jumped into learning all about our new country of the day--Africa!

We were introduced to a child from Africa and learned about a day in her life on our Time for Kids website. Then, we were in for a fabulous treat--a visit from a real musician, Mr. Mark! Mr. Mark taught us about some of Africa's favorite instruments--drums! He played several different types of drums for us. We loved them all! Then, we enjoyed some traditional African music from the African Children's Choir. We were so inspired by these musical experiences that we decided to create our own African instruments--drums, tambourines, and shakers. Finally, we learned an African chant and our own rousing rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" complete with African drums, tambourines, and shakers! Here is a show of our morning! Check it out and let us know what you think by leaving a comment below. We have also included some pictures from another great day! We hope that you enjoy them! Today was so much fun! We can't wait until next week! :) 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_CGJElEYcj8bWxDVnJDNTNVYlk/view?usp=sharing

Interesting Insects

This week we have been studying about insects. We learned that an insect has three body parts: a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. They also have two antennas, two wings, and six legs. Ask us to sing our song about insects. It is sure to put a smile on your face and help you to never forget these facts about insects! During our lessons this week, we read a lot of fascinating books about insects. We were especially impressed with Eric Carle's collection of insect stories. One of our favorites was The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  

After hearing this story, we also learned about the life cycle of a butterfly by reading some nonfiction stories about butterflies. In order to help us remember the different stages of a butterfly's life, we used pasta to make these butterfly life cycle plates. Aren't they neat!

Finally, we took some time to make our own insect creations. You can see them in the show below! Don't forget to leave us a comment and let us know what you think of our cool creations!

https://animoto.com/play/E8ZRCVMcBAbZEQHeAEvsdw

Music Around the World--Session 3--Week 1--Australia

Welcome to our Music Around the World STEAM School class! I am so very excited that your child is joining me in this journey as we travel around the world exploring different countries and their unique music. I have two loves in life—music and children— so I could not be more thrilled to share this experience together with your child. We are going to learn to play instruments and sing songs from different countries. Then, we will share our music with you all on Thursday night, May 18th at 7:00 P.M. Please save this date on your calendar! It is sure to be a night that you will not want to miss! Thank you again for allowing me the privilege to work with your child. I can not wait to share this experience together!

We began our musical tour around the world today by talking about the universal language of music and how it can touch all hearts and help all people. Then, we enjoyed singing "It's a Small World" together before flying around the world to Australia. 

The land down under had a lot to offer us! We learned about everything from koala bears to kangaroos and spent a "day in the life" of a girl from Australia on the Time for Kids website. We were also introduced to two of Australia's favorite instruments--bilmas and digeridoos. After listening to one of Australia's traditional songs featuring these instruments, we made our very own bilmas and digeridoos. Boy were they cool too! Finally, we began learning the Australian song that we are going to perform, Kookaburra. It is a silly song that will make you giggle and laugh, while allowing you to soak up the unique sounds of the digeridoos and the bilmas. Here is a show of our first day together. Leave us a comment and let us know what you think about our first week in Music Around the World!

https://vimeo.com/206651321

Dr. Suess Week

This week we celebrated Dr. Suess's Birthday and the wonderful literature that he has contributed to our world! Some of the highlights from our week included dressing up for Dr. Suess Day and creating hats to match the Cat in the Hat. Here are some pictures from our fun day:

https://animoto.com/play/1kEM0DS0I53csPlhZ2JCfw

Each day this week we explored Dr. Suess's books throughout our lessons. Here are some of the fun books we studied and the activities we did with them:

During our study of the Cat in the Hat, we created a book where we reviewed our color words by illustrating the different colors of the Cat in the Hat's hats. He even had a silly hat filled with many colors! Do you know which hat was his favorite? The red one! I wonder why?

Then, we studied the Lorax where we talked about the importance of taking care of our Earth. We then took time to go outside and clean up any trash that we saw on our playground. We want to help keep our Earth clean so that we can enjoy it for many years to come!

Another great book that we enjoyed was, I Can Read with My Eyes Shut. After enjoying this story, we made our own Dr. Suess character. Here are some of our unique creations: 

In Math this week, we explored One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish. We then used this book to sort and graph goldfish and write our own addition problems. 

We also reviewed sequencing numbers to ten by reading Ten Apples Up on Top and then created our own self portrait with ten apples on top of our head.

In Science, we read Put Me in the Zoo and then used this story to label the parts of an animal.

We also enjoyed What Pet Should I Get . Then, we created our own pets by drawing our own animal and then trading heads with a friend. They turned out so very whimsical and fun just like Dr. Suess's creatures in his stories. 

We also enjoyed, Horton Hears a Who! Then, we reviewed using our science tool, the hand lens, and used it to match a large picture to the smaller one that looked just like it.

Finally, we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck and had the opportunity to create and explore real live oobleck. Would you want to play with oobleck? Check out our video and see what you think!

https://vimeo.com/206651205