Lesson #4

Your kids are "A" adorable and I love each of them! One of the most important things I learned from Sound Beginnings was how to play with my own kids! Eye contact, physical touch (holding hands, hugs, patting, etc.), and telling your child you love playing with them shows them how much you love them! 

Attaching a physical action to the alphabet letters (like in our song A, You're Adorable) improves fine motor skills. It also forces the brain to multi-task, and processing this extra information increases its ability to recall letter names and sounds! 

I would like to know who is reading this newsletter. Please text to let me know what song your child has requested to be played again most often!

Next class we'll sing these songs:

• ABC Song
• Over the Deep Blue Sea
• Five Little Sandcastles
• Instrument Listening (Steel Drum, Ukulele, Sand Blocks, Fish Guiro)
• Major Scale
• Aquarium
• Three Little Fishies
• Lukey's Boat
• Charlie Over the Ocean
• Pearly Shells

Learning about different types of instruments is not only fun, but it helps the kids be aware of many different types of sounds. Their ears will be able to pick out and identify sounds and rhythms – even when they are all together! Your child may even have a favorite instrument sound! Or maybe they will enjoy playing a certain kind of instrument. We experiment with many types of simple percussion instruments in many different ways to not only practice coordination with our hands, but introduce many types of sounds that can be made with the same instrument!

The interval between the pitches of SOL and MI occurs naturally in singing and calling. This makes it a perfect place to start when learning to sing in tune! A terrific example of this is our song Bickle Bockle.

Optional home fun activity: Match up the numbers and animals on page 13 of your workbook and play simple counting games. (Remember, these activities are optional but can be a great bonding experience to do with your child during the week.)

Here's a band playing steel drums, and here's a quick demonstration of a fish guiro.

Sound Beginnings is education through musical play! It prepares children for success in Kindergarten and Let’s Play Music. Sound beginnings provides research-based elements that stimulate growth in the areas particularly crucial to the development of the young child. These elements make up the foundation of the Sound Beginnings curriculum.  Here is just one:
	Little hands need to be strong in order to perform life and learning skills such as dressing oneself and writing. In class, students gain finger dexterity and hand strength as they participate in finger plays to favorite nursery rhymes and manipulate tactile props and instruments.