Do-Re-Mi's with numbers, patterns and rhythm

Today Estee got to be Mozart Mouse who loves all the high notes and Coppelia was Beethoven Bear who loves all the low notes.

We started off with a bit of review 

When I showed the girls the image of these symbols

is for Piano it means soft

Is for Forte it mean Loud

Surprising me, they remembered right away and shouted out the answer.  

We also reviewed the importance of the letter "P"

P is for 

Piano

Posture

Poise

Present

and 

Performance

We then took a lesson from none other then our favorite singing governess 

I played this song for the girls giving them different coordinating actions to perform across the floor.

This was used to help them understand a piano scale.

C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C

We aren't ready for the whole scale but having them learn the song gives them a reference for some new activities.

next I gave the girls a pair of gloves

Why?

No silly Estee, not because it will make you look like a fancy tap dancer...

but I like the way you think!

The gloves were used as a tool to introduce what finger goes where on the piano.

we then sang a song about our fingers giving each one a wiggle when we said their names

 1- Thumpkin

 2 - Pointer

3- Tall man

4 - Ring man

 5 - Pinkie

On a side note, music is an excellent way to teach math and numbers to children.  Coppelia, more so then Estee has struggled with number recognition.  I have done the flash cards, made up poems and even taken days to "celebrate" numbers to reinforce the image that goes along with the number.  None of these helped.  She would remember for a short time and then very quickly forget.  That is when I tried music and numbers.  

I read many articles about children struggling with number recognition because of 2 things.  The first being that they don't understand the concept, (The number is 7, so what?)  The second issue is confusing numbers like 2 and 5.  After reading these articles I decided to try using music to teach math.  This is a post of how I began teaching them.  This seemed to be the magic approach.  It still took her awhile to recognise the number, but with no struggle at all she could instantly tell you the value of notes.  The two subjects combined may seem very complex to some people but to her it makes complete scenes.  The complex approach is something I can relate to and although it is not the way many teachers will go about teaching, I know that she understands the concept of numbers and will eventually be able to grasp the simplified way numbers are approached. 

After our gloves and finger song we took a look at our keyboard

Can you find the pattern on the keyboard?

2 black keys, 3 black keys, 2 black keys, 3 black keys

Mozart Mouse found all the sets of 2 black keys

and Beethoven Bear found all the sets of 3 black keys

The girls already knew were middle C was from their piano lessons but today I explained that if we can find 2 black keys and then when we walk down the step we will find C.  So we spotted all the C's on the keyboard.

C is also number 1 on our right hand as well as Do when we are singing.  Then I briefly explained that D was number 2 and while singing it is Re.

We then sang a song only using Do and Re.  We tap our knee's on Do and belly on Re.  We will eventually add more as we add more notes.

I then gave the girls a new music symbol

This means rest

We then with our rhythm sticks practiced some new rhythms with this new symbol

Lastly I gave the girls each a set of these

I asked them to lay them out in their own line and come up with their own rhythm.  Just like the characters in this week's theme Peter and the Wolf they all have their own rhythm so Coppelia and Estee got a chance to compose there very own rhythm.

Coppelia's

Estee's

We all took turns playing their rhythms.  Although this is where class finished they continued with this game using all of the notes and kept rearranging to make new rhythms.