Grouptime events

Twirling leaves, waving arms Kicking, balancing from log to log Reaching, grabbing branches high and low Swooping down to see what's below Pushing and dragging with such determination While gently touching worms, bugs, flowers and all sorts of creation Explore, discover, create Investigate how things deteriorate Oh how great it is to be free with this magical forest tree.  

In the beginning of the unit the children discovered that we can use our body parts like instruments.  Billy noticed that by tapping or slapping certain body parts we can make sounds.  We can make clicking and drumming sounds with our mouth and tongue. "Our hands look like cymbals" We played the song game "Sing, Oh sing" to include variety of ways we can make music with our body parts. "Sing, oh sing altogether Sing, oh sing altogether Sing, oh sing altogether Won't you be my darling." We replaced "sing" with sound action words: snap, stomp. pop, clap, slap. We also worked in partners to try creative ways of making sounds with our bodies. As we played together the children compared our actions to certain instruments they've tried before. Winston thought of our clapping hands like cymbals. Billy was slapping his tummy like the drums and our clicking tongues sounded like castanets.

dancing with scarves Dancing to Wagner's Longhegrin Artists are not only inspired visually by their surroundings.  One artist in particular was inspired by the sound/music he hears.  Wassily Kandinsky, was an artist known for his abstract pictures and colourful shapes.  He also was inspired by music like the operas, compositions of Wagner such as the Longhegrin and other classical pieces. For him music can inspire ones thoughts and evokes images in the listener's minds and emotions.  Certain sounds can also trigger different memories, ones which we associate these sounds to. His paintings show the unison of various colors, shapes and lines which may not go together.  He explained that the bold colors and sharp lines create a certain unity which may only be interpreted by the person observing his painting. Kandinsky's "Composition" piece the first abstract picrure ever painted We used Kandinsky's "Compositions" pieces to look at li...