Green Turtles #13

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #13: Thank you for coming to class this week! Parent days are so much fun, especially when we only get them once a month!

END-OF-SEMESTER PROGRESS: We are winding down the Green Turtles class and gearing up for Yellow Arrows. I loved being able to show you in class all the things they've "checked off" and mastered. I'm so excited to add in the left hand when we get to Yellow Arrows!

TUITION DUE: Thank you for getting your tuition in! It helps me so much when everything is on time! The next tuition will be due the day of the first class of Yellow Arrows, which will be January 14. 

CALENDAR CHECK-IN: Next week, November 26, there is no class due to Thanksgiving. The week after, December 3, will be a regular kid-only class for Lesson #14. Then on Lesson #15 (December 10) we will have our CELEBRATION DAY! This is a fun-filled day of review games and celebrations. It'll be an open-house style with student-led games activities to do on your own time. I'll meet with each student/parent at some point while you're here. You can come any time from 2-5:30 (the time block where I usually teach the three 2nd Year classes), and stay for as long or short as your schedule allows/requires. Parents get to come with kids that day, and we will have a lot of fun. After that we'll break for the holidays. 

YELLOW ARROWS: We will start Yellow Arrows on Wednesday, January 14, which will be a Parent Day, and the first installment of tuition will be due. You will get all your Yellow Arrows materials that day, including a class calendar taped into your workbook. You can check out the class calendar now at this link, and it will be available any time under the Calendar section on the website.

GOOD TO KNOW

PRIMARY CHORDS: Red, yellow, and blue! Your student should be able to play each of these chords and transition between them. To reinforce this, practice playing the red-to-blue chords perfectly 5 times back and forth. If they mess up, start the count over. When they can get to five-in-a-row, we call it Fabulous Five and give high fives and lots of celebration. Once they've mastered red/blue, try red/yellow. Then for a super challenge, blue/yellow. This will really test their brainpower!

PRINTABLE CHRISTMAS MUSIC: If your student is aching to play more, here are some Christmas songs that they will be able to play! They focus on the red, yellow, and blue chords in the right hand and will encourage your student to fill your home with holiday carols!

FUN TO KNOW

FIVE FAT TURKEYS: Here is an activity your student might like to do over the long break. Now that they know all three chords, they can play a lot of the songs from 1st Year, including Five Fat Turkeys! Here is a link to lots of Five Fat Turkey activities, including the music that your 2nd Year can play. If they're interested, they can also go through the back of their Red Balloons and Blue Bugs workbooks and play the red, yellow, and blue chords to the chord charts in the reference sections! 

Green Turtles #12

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #12: Your Green Turtles are doing great! I'm seriously proud of them! They are able to play all three chords with their right hands and it's amazing! I'm excited for Yellow Arrows when we add in the left hand. Exciting stuff!

CHORD FINGERINGS: Remember that the red and the blue chords are played with fingers 1-3-5, while the yellow chord uses 1-2-5. This will get easier as they do it regularly. 

PRACTICE THOUGHTS: Your at-home daily play should only be lasting 10 minutes at the most at this point. Make it a game, too! See if they can play three red chords, three blue chords, and three yellow chords before their brother finishes brushing his teeth. 

PARENT DAY/TUITION DUE: Next week after will be a parent day, and the last tuition payment of the semester will be due. I'll send an invoice between now and then to remind you.

GOOD TO KNOW

MYSTERY BUG: We played a new rhythm game called Mystery Bug which is surprisingly fun. I put four separate rhythm cards out, but the one on the 3rd beat is flipped over so you can't see which bug it is. The person who knows the mystery bug claps the entire 4 count measure and the students identify which rhythm (bug) was heard on the 3rd beat. We flipped it over and cheered because what they heard matched what was on the card! 

FUN TO KNOW

Three Hoedown-themed "fun to know" sections in a row! I really do love this puppet show. Here is a video of the United States Marine Band playing Hoedown from Rodeo. It is so fun to see which instruments play the sounds we know so well!

Green Turtles #11

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #11: Parents, your Green Turtles are fantastic! I'm so proud of their hard work and how they are doing hard things!

BLUE CHORD: We officially introduced how to play the Blue Chord with the right hand. Ah-mazing! They did a great job with "Do has the thumb and the others go up one." Blue Chord is played with 1-3-5, the same fingers that play the Red Chord. It is time to put blue stickers on the keyboard and/or color your Chord Helper with blue! Here are some pictures to make sure you get it right the first time.

SONGBOOK MARKING: More coloring chords to help us see the differences! Here are the two songs we colored this week. If your student wasn't there or didn't finish or didn't have a songbook, update your books! (I actually didn't get to the Primary Chords song in one of the classes, so you can have them do that one during an at-home play.)

GOOD TO KNOW

TURTLE SHELLS: We continue to find intervals both on the staff, on the keyboard, and in our chords. The skill of seeing intervals will help to becoming a great sight reader!

ECHO EDNA: A good musician knows what a song sounds like after he plays it. A great musician can figure out what it sounds like before. Echo Edna gives the students practice in looking at a group of notes and figuring it out with the steps and the skips, singing it, then playing it. 

FUN TO KNOW

Aaron Copland, the composer of our Hoedown puppet show, was an American composer born in Brooklyn, New York in 1900, and was amazingly influential in creating American classical music. Many musicians of this time were dismissing traditional American music (including jazz, blues, and hoedown) as less important music. Copland not only embraced and highlighted American music, but showed how it belongs in the world music library. Last week I shared a blogpost with lots of information on Copland. Here is a video of Aaron Copland himself conducting Hoedown. He is so fantastic!