The King's Orchestra

Once upon a time...

A King!

My little readers will say...

That's right, this time there was a king who, after bringing you all for the rooms of his castle, has also accompanied us in the bigger one, the one with so many drums and lots of colored eggs, the one with the Orchestra!

We must even try to play these beautiful instruments and see if we can make the Orchestra.

A friend of the King accompanies us with the flute as well as he plays the melody we can accompany him with our tools ... first with the drums ... then with the eggs ... then all together ... then no ... then standing ... then walking ... then only the red drums ... then only the green eggs ... then all the blue ... then ...

Walking on the Moon

- Okay kids, let's now lying on the ground and then slowly we get up and start walking slowly on the Moon ... SLOWLY!! -

I made this activity in my 3,4 and 5 year olds classes this year.

The children, relaxing playing, not only had fun but most of the time were competing to see who was going more slowly! Try it for yourself.

If you do not have a computer / tablet and Wi-Fi in the classroom to play the video, you can take the audio track from here (it's n° 6).

Touch the star

I want to recommend Kelly Riley's blog.

Kelly uses the SMART Board (interactive whiteboard) in her music lessons and all files created with SMART Notebook software are available to everyone on the blog.






In this video you can see her class in action linking a melody to a score.

Spinning sound shapes

- Come on kids all sitting here. Let's make a circle. -
- Maestro ... can I go to the bathroom? -
- Gabriele, but you really need? -
- Yessss .... -
- Okay, do not talk to mom out there! -
- Ok. -


- Then this circle? -
- But what kind of circle is it? -
- Yeah Elena, what kind of circle is it? ... you are all scattered ... everywhere! -
- WHAT KIND OF CIRCLE IS IT? -

Music Reading Drawing

Early in the morning,
Marco and his dad arrive kindergarten.
- Have fun, Marco.
See you tonight! -

Thus began a small book that I found by turning around (I can not do without) children ward in library.
Just opened: Oh - I thought - children I meet in kindergarten where I work will enjoy it, they can see themself in reading the things and situations they experience during their day! Do I have to take it with me and do something with music. - Caught!

After some time I am in class with the book in hand.

- Read by myself! - the class educator
- Sure -

She begins to read, kids are listening (I'm lucky because it is something they do often), and shortly after, interrupting the reading, I start with CiaU.

Read on and we find ourselves on a fire truck ... encounter an elephant and a mouse ... get on a train ... go to lunch ... let's take a nap ... we wake up ... have a snack ...

I realized musically with the children some of the situations interrupting the teacher always listening to what I do (I'm so lucky).

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Do you remember Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977 movie?

There is a moment... I was very impressed when I saw that for the first time (and even today it's a nice effect). Mother ship landing (see the scene here).

This year I wanted to try something with the children of Musica è Gioco 1a class (4 years). I had with me the soundtrack of the film with the specific track of that scene and after preparing the stereo I told the children - Ok ... here are two sounds, the high ones for the girls and the low ones for the boys. You are standing scattered around the classroom, and move when you hear your own sound. - I sang the main theme for the girls and the "awkward" sounds for boys ... - Ready? Move only when the music begins! -

My colleague with wide eyes, I was trying to understand the too loud speakers and the kids (with fun) were listening carefully triyng not to lose their own sounds!

Did you like it? > Yessss
One more time? > Yessss

At this point we repeated the activity in groups of 2 girls and 2 boys alone while the others were watching what was happening. Who did the work was super involved and the sat children screaming - Come on! Move now! It's your sound! -
Fantastic, I came back home in the evening with a huge smile!

How to use Pinterest for music education

I'm not going to explain what it is and how to create an account because you can just search on Google and you will find all the information.

I want to share with you how to use it effectively to find a lot of ideas and information on music education.

Pinterest works like all social networks (I follow those who interest me and I receive updates) but is focused on a visual experience of the web. Each user creates and organizes boards pinning things about that board. A picture from a blog will contain the link to the blog from which it was taken (the button 'Pin it' does just that and is well explained in the 'Help' section of Pinterest).

Are you starting to understand what are the possibilities for music education?