Week 2

During the second week there were several new things that I learned. We went over steady beat, which is the constant repetition of one sound, and rhythm, which is the combination of short, long, and silent sounds. These two things are concepts that are extremely important in music. One of the skills that we worked on was playing the recorder. We learned three different notes, A, G, and B, and learned how to play our first song, hot cross buns. Although I think I'm just about the only one, I'd never learned how to play the recorder in elementary school so it's was new to me, but fun. We also learned a few new songs that we could use in our future classrooms.

Steady beat and rhythm were imparted to us through an activity we did with making up a rhyme. Everyone in the class made up a rhyme that had four beats and was four lines and then using a hand drum or rhythmic sticks we had a partner keep the beat as we recited our poem. After everyone understood the concept of steady beat we worked on rhythm using the same some and the hand drum again. It helped us understand and hear the difference between the two. To understand how to play the recorder the teacher demonstrated a note for us, showed us the proper way to hold the instrument, and then followed and tried to play ourselves.

I think it is important that we learned these things because steady beat and rhythm are such important concepts in music that in order to really understand music we first have to learn the basics. To really progress and move onto things like the recorder or singing it helps to know the different concepts. The recorder seems to be a good way to introduce children to music and instruments, so in order to teach the children in our class these skills we must know them first. I also believe it's important because it is another way to make sure we enrich our class with subject matter outside of the norm and really get children interested. It gives them the opportunity to expand their creativity as well.

The younger that children begin to learn music the better it is. I have found that children often understand things better when it is presented to them through music. For example, the reason why many of knew our alphabet at such a young age was because of the catchy song that came along with it. I'm not sure how true it is, but I've also heard that things like learning instruments or new languages are easiest when people are young because they're still picking up on so many things, and as we get older it becomes harder. Because of this I think that introducing students to the recorder or other instruments gives them a head start and is a very good idea. 10 songs that I am familiar with would be...
1.) twinkle twinkle little star
2.) Mary had a little lamb
3.) ABC song
4.) Happy Birthday
4.) Jingle Bells
5.)Three Blind Mice
6.)Itsy Bitsy Spider
7.)Baa Baa Black Sheep
8.)Old Mac Donald
9.)Bingo
10.)If you're happy and you know it

Rhyme About Me!

Hello my name is Kate
I think music is great...
I hate to be late
Florida is my favorite state!

Music History

I like basically all types of music, but I really enjoy listening to country. My favorite singer is Taylor Swift. I listen to music every day when I get ready or do homework. I wouldn't be able to pick a favorite song because there are to many to decide between. I do have an ipod, and it has 1667 songs. When I listen to music it's almost always from my Ipod, so I listen to it all of the time. The experience I have with music is mostly playing instruments. I took piano lessons from 3rd grade until 7th grade and although I do not take lessons any more I still play every once and a while. I also played the flute when I was in middle school for two years in the school band but dropped out. I was also in a school choir for a year, but generally do not like public singing to much.
I believe that what we did the past two days was significant for several reasons, but todays activity especially . First of all, it gave me a good idea for the first day of school when I have my own classroom. I think the music and monkey would make the children feel more comfortable, so it was a really good idea. I also thought it was significant because it gave everyone a chance to get to know each other and have fun. Even for our class it gave us an opportunity to let lose and have fun, and it is important for our students to know that school is about having fun to, so they can get to know each other while having fun. I really liked the activity. We were able to learn them because we kept repeating the activity and I think the repetition and consistency of the activity makes it easier to pick up on and learn.