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| No class next week because of Spring Break!
Parents come the following week and final payment is due! If you are unsure if you are caught up on your payments or not, please just ask. All entries for the Spirit Month drawing are due this Saturday by 8:00pm. NO EXCEPTIONS. You MUST fill out this form if you wish to enter the drawing. You can text me a picture of your BINGO card if you didn’t bring it to class. I hope you and your children have learned some fun songs you will continue to sing together. Singing is not only enjoyable, it has is beneficial in the following ways:
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 Chants & Rhymes Improbable Storylines | ||
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Solfege is a centuries-old method used around the world and widely taught at all levels of music instructions. It utilizes syllables and hand signs to develop and strengthen the understanding of pitch relationships and teach sight singing. Understanding solfege also aids in transcribing (writing down) music and improves improvisational and composition skills.
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| Here is a short video series I made for you that can help you remember the solfege signs! | ||
 Cause & EffectYour baby’s primary interest is making things happen. So when your little one shakes a bell or rattle and then hears the sound, this helps make the first—of many—learning connections about cause and effect, or "what happens when I do this?" | ||
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Have a musical day! |
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Silver Buttons #11
Document Lesson # 11 Lesson 15 is called “Instrument Day” and gives families a chance to share an instrument or vocal talent. Of course, performing is optional and you are welcome to just listen, but we would enjoy hearing from you, your child, or another family member or friend who plays an instrument or would like to sing a solo (a song from this semester would be fabulous). We welcome any and all performers! Let me know if you have any questions. 
Next week’s songs: - The Shape Song
- Acka Backa
- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
- Jack and Jill
- DO Pentatonic Scale
- Lady with the Alligator Purse
- Celebration Dance (Horn Concerto #4)
- Il Court Il Court Le Furet
- Six Little Ducks
Days of the Week
Calendaring skills are an essential part of daily life. Learning the days of the week is foundational to understanding other concepts about the passage of time. Simple Tips, Benefits and TipsMusic & Movement
The brain develops musical comprehension through voicing and dancing. To get the full benefits of music, children need to sing along and move to it. Move to Learn Music Smart Moves dances enhance children’s muscle strength, balance, and hand-eye coordination development. Dancing requires greater range of motion, coordination, and endurance than most other physical activities. In addition to the physical benefits of dance, moving creatively fosters emotional development, social awareness, and cognitive development. And you thought we were just having fun! Optional Home Fun Activity:
Color the ‘Celebration Dance’ on page 17 in the workbook.Here is a reading of “The Lady with the Alligator Purse” so you can see the fun pictures! It’s not quite as exciting as our song, but there’s no reason you can’t sing along! Vestibular Stimulation
When your baby moves back and forth or side to side while rocking or swaying, the vestibular system is stimulated—the system of fluids in the inner ear—which is so important to balance and coordination. Don’t just listen to the class music… move to the music! 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. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #10
Document Lesson # 10 Next week’s songs: - Days of the Week
- Acka Backa
- The Shape Song
- Name the Instruments (French horn, clarinet, triangle, trumpet, bass)
- Jack and Jill
- Lady with the Alligator Purse
- Six Little Ducks
- Celebration Dance (Horn Concerto #4)
- Il Court Il Court Le Furet
- Un Elephant
- The Water is Wide
Believe it or not, our semester of musical fun is quickly coming to a close! I would love to have you join us for more musical adventures. The next semester of Sound Beginnings will be Black Spiders. I hope to see you all there…well, most of you!
For those of you with a child that will be age 4 by September 1st, I invite you to come to a Let’s Play Music free preview class. You can sign up here: https://www.musikandme.com/Preview-Class. I encourage you to invite a friend to join you too!
You can learn more about Let’s Play Music on my website: www.musikandme.com It’s similar to Sound Beginnings, but not really! It’s a 3-year total musicianship program where kids will learn piano skills, music theory, classical music appreciation, in-tune singing, and SO MUCH MORE, all through play!
Cultural Importance of Dance
Dance has long been used throughout the world to celebrate festivals, births, weddings, crop harvests, or other important occasions. Simple Overview, Basic Timeline/HistoryNext Semester
Our next semester of Sound Beginnings classes is Black Spiders! In addition to creepy crawlies we will learn about trains, manners, and the months of the year. You’ve already received a separate email with registration information. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already! The Early Bird Special ends soon! We love our sing-along books in Sound Beginnings! Besides being fun, reading aloud to young children has many benefits. To name a few: - It varies the vocabulary to which children are exposed.
- It affects brain activity associated with visual imagery.
- It enhances concentration.
- It develops creativity and encourages imagination.
- It strengthens social, emotional and character development.
Optional Home Fun Activity:
Make the alligator purse on page 25 in the workbook — it’s a great place to store your shape buttons! 🙂Here is a video with our Celebration Dance! It’s really called Horn Concerto #4 by Mozart. It’s a little longer here than what we do in class, but it shows the instruments playing it…especially the French horn! (You can see just how big the bass actually is – there are two of them in the back at time 0:36!) Language Development
Babies learn words more easily when they are accompanied by simple melodies. Singing folk
songs, rhymes, and other child-friendly repertoire exposes them to new vocabulary. 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: 
In class we experience steady beat and imitate rhythmic patterns with our voices, bodies, and through hands-on use of instruments. We incorporate Eurythmics, which is movement-based rhythm training that is perfect for toddlers! Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #9
Document Lesson # 9 Children sing spontaneously because it is joyous, playful, personal, expressive, and creative. Their natural desire to imitate helps develop their singing voice, learn to match pitch and sing simple melodies correctly. Next week’s songs: - Days of the Week
- DO Pentatonic Scale
- In My Class I Have Some Bells
- Cherry Pe
- Lady with the Alligator Purse
- Celebration Dance (Horn Concerto #4)
- Un Elephant
- Six Little Ducks
- Il Court Il Court Le Furet
- The Water is Wide
Registration starts this FRIDAY at NOON for the next semester of Sound Beginnings which is called Black Spiders! For those of you “graduating” into Let’s Play Music, you can register for that as well. If you register by March 20th, you don’t have to pay the $20 registration fee! I have several class times available for both SB and LPM.
I will be doing more preview classes the next couple weeks. Please sign up for as many preview classes as you would like. (Think of them as “make up” classes for any you may have missed!) Please let your friends know about the preview classes as well. Full preview classes are WAY more fun than small classes. I have to cancel any preview class that doesn’t have at least 3 families in it!
You should have received a separate email about Spirit Month, so have fun earning as many tickets as you can!
Unvoiced Sounds
The "unvoiced" sounds do not have a vowel sound attached. Pronouncing these sounds correctly will help your children as they start to sound out words they are reading. Voiced vs. Unvoiced, Text/Video ExplanationSOL-MI singing
Children naturally use the Sol-Mi interval when singing or calling, making it a great place to start when teaching children to sing in tune! LPM Blog “Il Court, Il Court Le Furet” is a traditional French children’s folk song and singing game. French folk music varies by the region in which it originated and reflects the traditions and culture of that region.
Because all folk music around the world originated with commoners, untrained in the musical arts, it’s melodies are easy to learn and sing. This makes folk music, in any language, a wonderful tool for early music instruction.
Optional Home Fun Activity:
Color and cut out the ferret puppet on page 35 in your workbook.Here is a video of a jazzy version of “Baby Elephant Walk” that features the clarinet! Also, be sure to check out the bass around the 2 minute mark (and there are trumpets shown briefly around the 1 minute mark as well)! Spacial Awareness and Gross Motor
The gross movement used in class helps to develop the infant’s vestibular system. The vestibular system provides our brain with information about motion, head position, and spatial orientation; it
also helps us to keep our balance, stabilize our head and body during movement, and maintain posture. 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: 
Sound Beginnings channels the young voice into beautiful, in-tune singing by providing proper vocal modeling in the correct range. Solfege hand signs teach pitch relationships; the minor 3rd (SOL-MI) pattern is used to develop in-tune singing and pitch matching. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #8
Document Lesson # 8 Timbre of Instruments
Listening to solo instruments helps children learn to recognize the instrument’s timbre prounounced (tam’-ber), or the distinctive sound that belongs only to that instrument. Brief Video, More in-depth Video, Basics of TimbreMusical Variety
Exposing children to a variety of musical styles helps them learn better since it requires their brain to compare and contrast what they hear. Listen to What? Color and shape are two of the most noticeable attributes of the world around us (with size being the third). Children begin to make a connection between familiar objects and their shape at a very early age. When exploring different shapes, children are developing a basic cognitive process: the observation of same and different. This process will be further developed and used to observe, compare and discuss everything they encounter in their lifetime. Optional Home Fun Activity:
Cut out the buttons on page 31 in your workbook and sort them on page 22.Here is a Facebook video with pronunciation for “Il Court Il Court Le Furet” so you can get a head start on next week! Face-to-Face Interaction
Babies’ brains are "wired" to selectively attend and respond to the human face. Intentional face-to-face interaction helps a child acquire language and information, and it fosters their social and emotional development. 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: 
A child learns when he or she feels loved. In class, purposeful touching, eye contact, partner activities, and generational nostalgia help develop the all-important parent/child relationship. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #7
Document Lesson # 7 Dance Purpose
Dancing not only improves physical abilities like balance and coordination, it fosters social interaction and creative expression. Benefits of Dance, CreativityEcho Edie & Head Voice
By echoing Edie with high voices, your children are discovering their head voice (or upper vocal range), which is so important for learning to sing in tune! Head vs. Chest Voice, Vocal Range for Kids A baby’s hearing is well developed at birth and by six months an infant can hear and process a wide range of sounds. The infant brain is also highly sensitized and wired for learning. So, even the very young benefit from interactive musical play. These benefits might include:
- better developed early communication skills
- earlier and more sophisticated brain responses to music.
- earlier ability to imitate and match pitch
- accelerated language acquisition
To name a few!
Optional Home Fun Activity:
Do the days of the week activity on p. 23 (cutouts on p. 31).Here is a video that shows it’s not only people that can benefit from music, but our favorite semester animal, the elephant, can enjoy music as well! Physical Touch
Nurturing physical contact with infants develops a secure attachment that facilitates enhanced social, emotional, and physical development. 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: 
Research has shown that singing improves reading. Our classes prepare children for kindergarten by exploring concepts and skills such as name recognition, alphabet and phonetic awareness, counting, identifying colors, rhyming, telling time, and sequencing. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #6
Document Lesson # 6 Opportunities for meaningful interaction and purposeful connection with your child are included in all Sound Beginnings classes. Playing, singing, and dancing with your children promote a bond with music and strengthen their relationship with you! Next week’s songs: - Days of the Week
- Cherry Pie
- DO Pentatonic Scale
- Frere Jacques
- Risseldy, Rosseldy
- This Little River
- Baby Elephant Walk
- The Button Factory
- Un Elephant
Echo Songs
Imitating short patterns and song fragments in echo songs like Frere Jacques helps children learn to sing sing accurately. Echo SongsRhythm Instruments
Rhythm instruments help children increase gross and fine motor skills, reinforce hand eye coordination, and help develop a sense of beat and rhythm. Instrument Benefits, Rhythmic Play No matter their age, Sound Beginnings encourages caregivers to move and experience music together in class. Recent studies suggest that moving to music with a child triggers the release of oxytocin — the “bonding” hormone. Babies whose experience with music also involves movement smile more, are easier to soothe, and are more willing to explore their environment. Optional Home Fun Activity:
Color the ‘Baby Elephant Walk’ on page 16 in your workbookHere is a video clip of the Baby Elephant walk song in the movie it was written for!
Next week we’ll begin “Un Elephant” so if you’d like to have some pronunciation guidance, here’s a Facebook video with someone who knows how to do it correctly!
Timbre
As early as seven months, infants can discriminate between sounds of different timbres with the same pitch! Early exposure to various instruments builds neural connections that become the foundation for future study and knowledge. 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: 
Peek into a Sound Beginnings class and you will see skipping, crawling, dancing, and jumping! Full body movement builds large muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, aids brain-hemisphere function, and develops balance in young children. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #5
Document Lesson # 5 Next week’s songs: - The Shape Song
- Cherry Pie
- Frere Jacques
- DO Pentatonic Scale
- Risseldy, Rosseldy
- The Button Factory
- If You Want to Speak in French
- Baby Elephant Walk
- Make New Friends
- A Bushel and a Peck
Bonding with your child: Playing with your child and giving them focused attention is a great way to foster a bond that impacts their future mental, physical, social, and emotional health. Today’s Parent Article, USU Article
Pentatonic Scale: Music based on the pentatonic scale is found in all cultures world wide. It produces pleasing melodies that are easy to sing in tune. Power of Pentatonic
Four of our songs this semester will help us explore the French language. A recent study found that simply exposing children to more than one language improved social communication skills in their own language! Exposure to other languages means exposure to different social perspectives, giving children "intensive training in perspective taking, which could make them better communicators in any language."
Optional Home Fun Activity:
Color and cut out the pieces on page 21 for the French scene on page 27 in your workbook.Here is a video of our newest singable storybook, Risseldy Rosseldy! Instrument Use
When babies are given access to simple rhythm instruments, their natural curiosity leads to exploration and repetition that encourages important developmental skills such as independence and perseverance. 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: 
Our classes teach intelligent listening and understanding of classical form in a fun and interactive way. Each semester we study the timbre (tam’-ber) of various instruments and our ‘smart moves’ dances involve the whole body in an enjoyable, classical music experience. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #4
Document Lesson # 4 The music included in Sound Beginnings curriculum was chosen to represent the best in folk music and nostalgic songs. Our Smart Moves dances allow us to also experience well-known classical pieces in age-appropriate ways. Dance along at home to continue the fun we have in class. Here’s a downloadable cue card of the way we experience the "Ice Skaters Dance" in class. Next week’s songs: - Days of the Week
- Frere Jacques
- DO Pentatonic Scale
- Thread Follows Needle
- Risseldy, Rosseldy
- The Blue Danube
- Make New Friends
- If You Want to Speak in French
- A Bushel and a Peck
My favorite thing about teaching this class is knowing that this class makes a difference to you and your child. Please text to let me know one activity from class that you've enjoyed at home and how you and your child experienced it!I love hearing success stories, both big and small!
Transitions & subdivision: Our transition activity allows us to hear and feel how a segment of
time can be divided into equal units we refer to as rhythm. Processing and internalizing rhythmic division will help children process fractional division in math later on! Math Meets MusicParachute: Parachute play is a great way to strengthen the upper body and
encourage cooperation. Parachute Play In order to to fully benefit from music, children need to do more than just listen. When a child sings, has rhythmic experiences, or dances along to a piece of music, a signal is sent to the brain to process and make meaning of the musical experience. Smart Moves dances are helping your child’s brain understand music in a more meaningful way and process musical elements such as theme, dynamics, and phrasing.
Optional Home Fun Activity:
Color the ‘Ice Skater’s Dance’ on page 15 in your workbook.Watch an orchestra play our "Ice Skaters Dance" song! You can watch just until the 3:00 mark for our shortened version, or you can even start the video at the beginning and enjoy the entire song!
Here is a Facebook video (from the husband of another Sound Beginnings teacher) with pronunciation for “Frere Jacques” that we’ll start on next week.
Speech Development: A recent study suggests that infants exposed to musical activities have stronger brain responses
to both music and speech rhythm, and that exposure to music increases the ability to detect
patterns in sounds. (University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences) 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. Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂
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Silver Buttons #3
Document Lesson # 3 This semester has a few French songs to help expose the students to the sounds of the French language. We are not attempting to teach a broad vocabulary, fluency, or even proper pronounciation, but simply exposure. Please check out the link below (in the section entitled "Exposure to Languages") to see how this benefits your student far more than you may realize! Next week’s songs: - Days of the Week
- The Shape Song
- Thread Follows Needle
- In My Class I Have Some Bells
- Mary, Mary Quite Contrary
- Miss Mary Mack
- The Button Factory
- If You Want to Speak in French
- The Blue Danube
- This Little River
Here is a Facebook video another teacher’s husband made for the song “If You Want to Speak in French” that goes over the pronunciation, if you want to be more precise than what we do in class. (I think you need to be logged in to Facebook to see it.)
Thank you for your enthusiastic participation in class! When you enjoy class activities you issuing a safe, non-threatening invitation for your child to also participate.
Even if your child is reserved and hesitant to fully engage in class, they are learning. Continue to encourage participation (but never force/bribe) and listen to the music often at home. Your example demonstrates how much fun making music can be!
Shapes: Recognizing the attributes of shapes is the same basic cognitive process children use in observing, comparing and discussing everything they encounter. Why Shapes, Shapes & Color Recognition
Exposure to Languages: Exposure to multiple languages varies their social experience and
helps children develop more effective social communication skills. Multilingual Exposure, Smarter Babies Understanding shape is foundational to cognitive development because shape is a primary source that infants and toddlers use to identify the objects around them. Eventually children will utilize this same cognitive process to observe, compare and discuss all they see and encounter.
Optional Home Fun Activity:
Color and cut out the shapes on page 29 of your workbook.Here is our Singable Storybook "Miss Mary Mack" for you to sing along with!
Music as a Social Bond: Synchronous movements such as clapping, bouncing, or dancing in time to music with infants have proven to help form social bonds between caregiver and child. (Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behavior at McMaster University) 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: In class we experience steady beat and imitate rhythmic patterns with our voices, bodies, and through hands-on use of instruments. We incorporate Eurythmics, which is movement-based rhythm training that is perfect for toddlers! Have a musical day!
-Ms. Bethany 🙂