Learning Links

One of our activities from Away We Go (Kindermusik Our Time) explores moving to music that is bumpy and smooth. We sing the song Floating Down the River, and we use hoops for our boats. The children and adults rock gently in their "boats." Then the music/words change and bodies begin to bounce, hoops bounce, children jump in their hoops. It's an obvious change - aurally and visually because of the music. This is how children experience legato and staccato - music terms for smooth and bumpy. The children in this class are 18 months - 3 years old.

When the children are 4 1/2 they can come to Kindermusik for the Young Child. Last week the children in a Young Child class listened to music that was staccato and legato. We used the music terms, and they saw the written words. They also moved with their bodies to music that incorporated staccato and legato. Another activity included drawing to music incorporating that same sound. Their pictures looked like dots and long flowing lines. They listened, moved, drew, and read about these musical terms of expression

Kindermusik links the learning throughout all of the curricula. This insures that "a good beginning never ends."