It's truly magical when we get to celebrate a birthday with RSF. One student had a birthday this week and they invited their cousins to the party and we all had an awesome celebration! The weather cooperated so everyone got to party outside. We shared jam instruments and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish! Feliz Cumpleaños!!
I love it when things start to click in music class! This week we were really rolling along in our ukulele class because the students are invested and continue to return and work hard each week. We got to jam out together playing Yellow Submarine, and a new song called High Low. This song we learned on the glockenspiel and the ukulele, and then we had a jam session with uke, glockenspiel, and guitar! The students requested that we play a game from our first week together. Requests are my favourite thing because it shows that we are connecting and the classes are making a positive impact!
This week we had new students join the fun of music class. Together we explored making music with the glockenspiel. We played a listening game called High, Low, or the Same. The game focuses on listening to an interval jump using the notes of the glockenspiel. Then the students say if the notes jumped high, low, or stayed the same. It's a great game for older students to introduce them to an RSF class! The new students then played chords on the ukulele and the glockenspiel together combining them with the drums for a fun jam session.
I love introducing new students to one of my favorite games. After introducing the C major scale with a glockenspiel, and the students understanding how the notes go up and down, I gave the two students 10 seconds to mix up all of the notes and create their own melody. Students of all ages love this game! It is a wonderful way to introduce a new instrument to a new student that feels fun and easy to play. Students will play over and over again creating their own songs! So far this game has no name. What would you call it?
This is the third week working with my ukulele student at Etnestine's. She is thoughtful and dedicated. She is very quiet and I have worried that I am not connecting with her. I love hearing my students talk about their lives and at today's lesson my student started to share. I am so grateful she felt comfortable to chat with me about school. She shared that she has ADHD and I shared that I do too. She was very glad to know this. She got a big smile and started to ask questions about learning to read. I was thrilled that we could have this conversation while colouring together. Having moments to colour together really help with connection.
I am so grateful when students share exactly what is on their mind. My thoughtful ukulele student doesn't shy away from sharing their wants and needs. Although they are very quiet when asked a question, they always answer honestly! This means we can play and have fun together and we both know we are on the same page!
Today I welcomed a new student to our class! They were so focused on the ukulele. Their dedication to learning was inspiring. It won't be long until we are jamming to our favourite songs!
Dancing, sleeping, hopping, and hiding - these are all of the things little bunnies love to do in a colourful garden of flowers. During this class we used colourful scarves to explore different kinds of movement as we pretended to be flowers in a garden. This was a sleepy bunch who were off to bed but when they saw me walk through the door they got excited and conjured a second wind for music class!
These classes were small but mighty. This have the opportunity to ask the kids for their ideas and have some fun one on one connection!
This week's classes were the definition of ‘meet the kids where they are’. All of my class plans went out the window! In the toddler class one kid was so into animal toys that we sang every animal song we knew! We used the drums to sound like the feet of each animal moving fast and slow! In our school age class we were celebrating one student’s birthday! So we had a karaoke party!! They were gifted a karaoke microphone for their birthday so everyone got a turn to sing for the ‘audience’ it was awesome to see the school age kids sing solo even though they felt nervous!
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