Green Turtles #6

NEED TO KNOW

Green Turtles #6: These first few months of Green Turtles are the most intense of the whole curriculum! Sitting at the keyboard and trying to control fingers is so hard and quite frankly taxing on these little bodies! But they are totally growing and learning and getting stronger and they are exactly where they are supposed to be.

HOMEWORK HELP: This week's homework is identifying and then writing Middle Cs. Remember, "Middle C, Middle C, has its own line like seriously."

CELEBRATE CONNECTION: Add some fun to this week's play time by seeing if the student can stand on one leg while the parent plays through a whole song. Then try the other leg! Play "air piano" by playing on the lid of the piano or a table instead of an actual keyboard.

INSTAGRAM: If you Instagram, be sure and follow @letsplaymusic_official. There are lots of tips and motivations, as well as freebies and giveaways. 

CDs: If you requested a CD in your Parent Orientation form, I finally passed them out today. Phew! If you wanted one but didn't get one, let me know. It just means I wrote things down wrong and is an easy fix!

GOOD TO KNOW

FIRETRUCK: Hurry, hurry, we learned to play a SOL FA MI RE DO! We introduced the concept of using each finger on the keyboard separately (rather than playing the entire red chord or intervals). This is a new concept and can be tricky. But we can do hard things! There are two recordings of this song on the app. The first is a "practice" track, which goes more slowly. The second is a "performance" track, which is faster. When you play the song on the app, let them do the actions from their seat at the keyboard, then get their hands in C position and play the "ding ding ding ding ding!" You can alternate singing "Ding ding ding ding ding" with "Sol Fa Mi Re Do" or "5-4-3-2-1" or even "5 notes stepping down!"

INTERVALS ARE TURTLE SHELLS: For some insight on intervals and why we spend so much time recognizing them both on the staff and with our ears, check out this blogpost. 

FUN TO KNOW

Our "Spring Bees" puppet show is from Vivaldi's Four Seasons concertos. I always think it's just a little silly when we do "Spring" in September and October...