Practice Preschool - Making Music Week 4

If your child isn't as engaged in a particular lesson, try using a hand puppet as the teacher :) You could also use an object as a pointer. Switch it up, be creative!

Also, flexibility is so important! You know your child best, feel out your audience to determine if you need to switch the order of things or eliminate/add activities as well as expound/extrapolate. My lessons rarely go exactly as they are written down--this "preschool" is just as much a practice for me as well as for Rowan. I'm getting a feel for what three-year-olds can do (if I teach three-year-olds, I plan to have four/five-year-olds the year before Kindergarten). I'll either edit the posts now with what I like, or keep them and adapt them for my future group of students.  

Week 4

Day 1

• Sunbeam Lesson 4 (see Week 1 post) "I Can Pray to Heavenly Father  " (5 min)

Talk about prayer -- Share the story of Daniel in the Lion's Den. Sing, A Child's Prayer.  Add experiences and principles as desired. Expound on prayer, or buy the book: Sunday Savers, as talked about in Week 1 post. 

• Song Jar (5 min)

Write down your favorite songs on slips of paper. Draw a few out of the jar to sing today! Alternately, write down ways to sing a particular song (fast/slow, silly/serious, old man/woman, etc.)

• Make an instrument for culminating lesson -  "You are an instrument!" (5 min)

Talk about how there are many ways you can make music without any instrument at all! Singing, humming, whistling, clapping, tapping, stomping, etc. Sing: "Do as I'm Doing" to practice the many variations. 

• Snack (5 min) 

Today's tip: Make a fruit/veggie smoothie! Rowan is obsessed with these, especially when he gets to use a straw to drink them! :)

• Free Play (20 min)

If the weather is nice, go outside! Visit a new park, go for a walk/bike ride, or just explore the backyard. If desired, have the entire lesson outside. 

Day 2

• STEAM Lesson (Art) "Vertical Painting" (5 min)

Since most months don't have five weeks, one for each letter of "STEAM", I wouldn't normally have a lesson for the subject of the corresponding theme. Since we are focusing on music this month, a form of art, that would be the subject I would skip. Since there are five weeks, I am including this art lesson. 

Vertical Painting

*Materials:

-Plastic Sign Holder/Frame (or other vertical substitute), paper, colored water/paint, eye droppers/pipettes. 

*Instructions

1. Attach paper to frame using tape or a clothespin.

2. Fill eye dropper/pipette with colored water.

3. Drip onto paper and watch it trickle downward. 

• Brain Break (5 min)

Try out a new finger play! Visit the YouTube channel: Jbrary for ideas!

• Review instruments for culminating lesson - (5 min)

Bring out all the instruments you've made so far this month and review their names, as well as the sounds they make. Sing your favorite songs you've learned with them. 

My favorites were: 

1. Egg Shaker: 1-2, Shake it on Your Shoe and Shake Your Shaker

2. Drums: Can You Play the Drums? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppuQF_2LqAw 

3. Rhythm Sticks: Tap Your Sticks (to the tune of The Wheels on the Bus)

4. Tambourine: Shake Your Tambourine

5. Comb Kazoo: Ours worked pretty well, but not well enough to last for a song. I might buy a cheap kazoo at the dollar store...we'll see. Otherwise, we'll just disregard it.

6. Shoebox Banjo: I've Been Working on the Railroad (...someone's in the kitchen with Dina, strumming on the old banjo...)

7. Your Body! With "Do as I'm Doing". 

• Snack (5 min)

Today's Tip: My son LOVES to dip things! What does your child love? Dip ideas: Apples in peanut butter, carrots or other veggies in ranch, graham crackers in milk, etc. 

• Free Play (20 min)

Have a sensory experience--use water, sand, dried beans, colored rice, or anything you can think of, in a bin/bathtub. Add in scoops, cups, spoons, etc. for added variety. Rowan has been really into using his bulldozer recently--he's used it in the dirt in the backyard and scooping plastic beads--we also use these beads to string on a colored shoelace to strengthen his fine motor skills.