It's been a great week for work on pitch (high and low sounds).
The second grade has been playing a listening game called New Shoes where we sing a song and play a little movement game, then listen carefully as I sing a pattern on neutral syllables. So far we're using three tones (sol, mi, do—high, middle, low). The students try to figure out what I sang and use hand signs to show the answer. Then someone sings the answer and I confirm by singing the syllables so they know if they're right. They've been amazed how many times they have the right answer, and I've been VERY happy to see that so many ears understand how this works!
The kindergarten class has been starting to work on sol-do patterns. Many of them can correctly identify patterns when I present them with neutral syllables. I'm amaze at their retention! Since I had all of these children last year, they're far ahead of where many of my kindergarten classes typically are in fall. It's very exciting to see their level of understanding after all the classes we had in pre-school or transitional kindergarten! Their timing (steady beat) is also ahead of what I usually see! That means we'll get to more sophisticated music making sooner this year!
