Creative Kids Summer Class: Piano Play 2017

We just finished our first session of Creative Kids Summer Class, with our focus topic of the piano. Piano Play is one of my favorite classes to teach, and in the past I've spread out the lessons over 8 (1-hour) class sessions. This year, I condensed and combined many of the topics to fit into 3 (2-hour) class sessions. So it was a little different, but still a lot of fun to spend more time together exploring some basic musical skills and concepts. Here are some of the ways we played with the piano this week!

Exploring Sound

We explored and tried out different kinds of instruments, and made some sound-makers of our own. 

We used water glasses on the light table to explore the sound of different pitches, and created tambourine shakers out of paper plates. 

High and Low Sounds on the Piano

After we spent some time exploring all different kinds of sound, we started talking about differentiating sounds in music and on the piano. We began with listening to and creating high and low sounds. First we tried making them with our voices, and then we discovered how to play higher and lower notes on the piano, using the classic story of the Three Little Bears

We also looked at what high and low looks like on the musical staff as we listened to "The Aquarium" from Carnival of the Animals. In that song, you can hear the notes moving up and down the piano, like fish swimming up and down in the ocean, so we used fish stickers to think about that movement in the music.

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Fast and Slow, Loud and Quiet Sounds

We also thought about how music can sound fast, slow, loud, and quiet. A favorite activity during this topic is painting slow or fast depending on the sounds of the music. 

 We also popped some popcorn for a snack, and paid attention to the sounds of the kernels popping. They start slow and more quiet, and then crescendo into fast, loud popping sounds.

Patterns on the Piano Keyboard

We explored the pattern of the piano keyboard, and tried to find certain notes using that pattern.

 We used the felt piano, and a paper collage activity to try to recreate that pattern as well.

The Musical Alphabet

I like to use a silly story about Grandma's house and a doghouse to teach the names of the piano keys. We played a few games to explore the musical alphabet using the giant floor piano.

Musical Notes

We played with long and short sounding notes on the piano, created our own songs, and built some notes out of our snack food (cheese and carrot sticks).

 Musical Books

This class is full of dancing, singing, and instrument playing, but we also spend time reading fun stories that help us to further explore the concepts we are talking about. 

One of our favorite silly books from the session inspired this piano at the beach sensory bin.

Piano Play Summer Class

This month has been a whirlwind of fun, hands-on classes and we finished things off with a session all about the piano.

The Keys on the Piano

We learned about the keys on the piano, and the pattern that they make. 

This inspired some black-and-white piano art.

We also played some games on a large sidewalk chalk piano outside to learn about the names of the keys.

The favorite was throwing the letter beanbags to land on the correct key. 

Rhythm and Beat

We also played a lot with the beat in music, and making rhythms inside the beat. 

Painting to the beat of marching music.

I love using the visual of raindrops and rainbows to teach short and long note rhythms. 

This idea came from the Playful Piano, and it works really well!

Short-short-short-long Art, inspired by the main rhythmic pattern in Beethoven's Fifth Symphony

The Sounds of the Piano 

On the last day we celebrated what an amazing instrument the piano is- it's music can create so many different feelings and imagery. We listened to many different piano pieces, and used dance, art, storytelling, and movement to feel and experience the moods they create.

Favorites included making bees dance to "Flight of the Bumblebee"

And painting waterfalls to Jon Schmidt's "Waterfall."

 I made these mini foam piano keyboards for the kids, so they can keep playing with the piano at home.

My hope with these classes is to build background knowledge about essential musical skills in a playful and engaging way, so as to build attitude of excitement and fun toward playing an instrument in the future.

Music Summer Class: Exploring Musical Sounds

For our first session of the music summer class, we explored the different sounds that we hear in music. Here are some highlights from our fun week!

We played listening games, like Baby Bear Sits on the Chair.

We tried out different rhythm instruments, and made our own sound shakers.

We explored sounds that were loud, soft, fast, and slow.

Painting slow and fast to music.

We created our own sound songs, using shapes to represent different sounds.

On the last day we listened to a musical story, Sleeping Beauty, composed by Tchaikovsky. We made crowns and acted out the story with movement and dance as we listened to different themes of music.

On the Felt Board: Hearts

My little guy seems to be learning and using new words every day now. It is so fun! As I mentioned in this post, one of my favorite words lately is "haaaa-ut!" (heart) There have been a lot of hearts around with Valentine's Day coming up, and it has been fun to watch him recognize the shape in different contexts.  After using these felt hearts in the preschool, I brought them up so he could play with them too.

I used the 5 big hearts to act out this finger play (found here) with my preschool students:

5 little valentines waiting in the store,

(Name) bought one and then there were four.

4 little valentines for you and me,

(Name) bought one and then there were three.

3 little valentines wondering what to do,

(Name) bought one and then there were two.

2 little valentines thinking up some fun,

(Name) bought one and then there was one.

1 little valentine said buy me and run!

(Name) bought one and then there was none.