Blue Bugs--What you can do at home

It's exciting to see how far the kids have come in one semester. This semester we are really working on rhythm, and you can really help reinforce this at home. Just simple clapping along to the radio, or dancing to music in the home, can help them feel the beat.

This week we started singing "Bill Grogan's Goat." Help your students feel the four beats (guitar strums on the CD), after each line. Help them practice clapping them as you listen to the CD. They should be able to tell you all about the silly goat and what he did.

We also sang "I've Been to Harlem" this week, both in a major key (happy), and in a minor key (sad). (Listen to the song on the CD, or ask me, if you don't know what I am talking about). As you are listening to the radio or other music, see if they can tell you whether other songs are "happy" or "sad", by the music, not the words. Some minor songs sound "spooky" rather than sad, like our "Halloween" song last semester, so that would be an acceptable response, too.

Ask them to tell you about the jungle animals we talked about, too. This is a really fun way we will teach them to subdivide beats!

One calendar item: I am looking at Tuesday evening, April 27th for the mini-recital. That is about as late as I dare push it, baby wise. Please look at your calendars, and let me know asap, if there are any major conflicts with that date!

I look forward to seeing you all on Thursday!