New Our Time Class Starting Soon!

Our Time: Away We Go

For your toddler, every day brings new discoveries and opportunities to explore the world around him. Despite your toddler’s seeming independence, he still longs for the safety and security of parental closeness. During this time, your toddler still relishes the comfort of the familiar while also seeking the challenge of something new.

Kindermusik Our Time encourages her to be creative, to initiate her own ideas and to respond in her own ways, while your active participation gives her the security she needs. As you play instruments, sing, move, and explore, you’ll uncover an engaging musical world while building your child’s confidence, self-control and communications skills.

What you’ll experience in class:
Instrument exploration and ensemble skill development. Your child will explore the physical characteristics and sounds of age-appropriate instruments which will eventually lead her to discover her potential for beat, rhythm, and melodic ensemble playing.

Vocal play. Through vocal play, toddlers learn to form vowels and consonants, say words and phrases, and imitate rhythm and vocal inflection. In Kindermusik Our Time, vocal play is presented within the context of songs, chants, and activities done in class.

Exploration Time. Your child will love discovering specially designed instruments, textures, sounds and movements.

Story time and early literacy. Listening to stories enhances language and speech development and fosters awareness of sounds, teaches use of language, and sends the message that words and symbols have meaning. The same experiences that help your child learn to read a book also help her learn to read music.

Movement Activities. Each class provides various opportunities for movement such as synchronized movement, group dances and circle games, and even expressive movement.

Together Time. Kindermusik is the essence of quality time, allowing you to make the most of the fleeting toddler years and giving you the time and the tools to make music and memories together in class and at home.

Expert advice. A Kindermusik educator explains how our musically based activities enhance your child’s complete development.

Enrollment includes:
Developmentally appropriate curriculum for parents and toddlers 18 months to 3 years old
15 week semester
Weekly 45-minute class
Home Materials: Family Activity Guide, two literature books, instrument, and two CDs of music from class

Starting Friday: April 16th
Time: 9:30-10:30am
Call 503-708-2827
http://www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net/

Sign and Sing Class Starting Wednesday April 7th

Sign and Sing Class
Taught by Angie Janson
10:30-11:15am
At the New Day Center for the Arts
5516 SE Foster Rd, Portland
503-708-2827
http://www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net/

From the moment you met him, you want to understand your baby. What is he thinking? Is he hungry, tired, too cold, content? Early on your baby also has an innate desire to communicate with you.

In a Kindermusik Sign & Sing Class (developed by Signing Smart™), we give you the tools and knowledge to communicate with each other using American Sign Language. Through songs and play, you’ll both learn signs for words like “mommy” and “eat,” and you’ll know if he wants “more” “milk” and when he’s “all done.” This research-proven signing class for hearing children speeds language development, eases frustration, and enhances long-term learning abilities.

What you’ll experience in class:
You’ll play, sign, and sing. Using everyday items in engaging small and large group activities, we’ll sing songs and practice the sign as we say the words, play with toys, and help her learn both the spoken word and the sign.

Expert advice. You’ll learn to spot your baby’s most “teachable moments” and the sign language teaching methods of the experts. Plus you’ll learn to recognize and respond to your child’s versions of signs.

Communication through sign language. When your child is chasing a bubble or asking for the ball, you’ll make the sign for it and say the word. So she has the ways to associate the word with the object: she holds the ball, she hears you say the word, and she sees you make the sign.

Enrollment includes:
Developmentally appropriate American Sign language curriculum for parents and hearing children,
ages 6 months to 3 years
10 week semester
Weekly 45 minute class

Two sets of At Home Materials—one for each five-week theme—each includes a Family Activity Guide, DVD, and Clip-On Flashcards showing adults and children using signs

Over 75 sign language activities and games to play together

Bring the Learning Home

Puppet Play:
Put a puppet on a preschooler's hand, and she'll play with her voice. Even the shyest child opens up when a puppet does the talking. No need for an elaborate show, just have a puppet-y conversation about what's for lunch or who's coming to play.

Try Making Your Own:
Paper Bag Puppet: a plain brown lunch bag works for this kindergarten classic-just slip it on your hand and flip the bottom up and down to make the puppet "talk." Make a face on the flap with whatever art supplies you have on hand!

Too-Cute Tube:
Using markers or scraps of paper, make a face on the top four inches of a cardboard tube taken from a roll of paper towels or gift-wrap. Glue some tissue paper or fabric around the "neck" to make a cape or dress. Your child can wiggle his tube puppet back and forth to make it talk.

Sing a Song of Sixpence

When it comes to nursery thymes, especially very, very, very old nursery thymes, the origins get a bit shrouded in the mists of time, but bits and pieces of the story still peek through. Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, published in 1744, is the oldest known book of nursery rhymes. The third rhyme is Sing a Song of Sixpence, but instead of blackbirds, you'll see "naughty boys" baked in the pie. However, the next stanza reads, "When the pie was opened, the birds began to sing..." So are birds a synonym for naughty boys or is it the other way around?

According to people who think about these things, Sing a song of Sixpence probably existed long before 1744. There's a line in Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night (written around 1600) that says, "Come on, there is sixpense for you; let's have a song," so historians know that the sixpence/song connection goes back as least that far. Aficionados of Sing a Song of Sixpence also refer to an Italian cookbook from 1549 that includes a recipe for making pies where live birds would fly out, presumably as a practical joke. Some Sing a Song of Sixpence trivia just isn't true. There rumor that the song was really a coded message written by the feared pirate, Blackbeard, to recruit sailors on voyages of pillage and plunder is nothing more than more. You just can't trust everything you read or sing.

Your Preschooler and Our Voices

Preschoolers not only get most of the words to favorite songs right, they like to make up their own.  Have you ever caught your child singing her own tune when she's playing alone? The song may have nothing to do with her play--she'll be singing about little birds while putting together a train puzzle--but it's her own accompaniment to her game. Preschoolers also like to narrate their play. Sometimes they narrate out loud, and then suddenly the soundtrack goes silent as the narration becomes internal, on to emerge out loud again a few minutes later. Your child may just be the star of her own little opera! And even if she's pretty much unaware of such subtleties as staying on key, she takes great pleasure in singing to her heart's content-and she loves it when you join in. Enjoy it while you can-at this tender age your child still prefers your voice to anything on the radio, so don't be embarrassed to sing along!

Your Toddler and Our Voices

Not only can your toddler walk, he can talk, too! How quickly those first words that once only you recognized become clear enough to be understood by complete strangers. Soon one-word utterances become two-word sentences, and then one day you wake up to a vocabulary explosion! At this point your toddler may not be able to carry a tune, but he'll be gaining the kind of control over his vocal chords that will allow him to switch from a loud voice to a quiet one. And if you sing a familiar song like Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and leave off the last word, he'll gladly fill in the blank. Soon he'll be singing his own version of the song probably something like "Twinkle, Twinkle, star" repeated over and over. Rhythm and lyrics (or at least some of the lyrics) come first. Pitch will have to wait.

Egg Shakers!

Playing with egg shakers in Village class

It is never too late to enroll….

We will accept new enrollments at any point in the semester providing there is room in the class. Why not come and try a preview class? When you love it, you can register that day and she will prorate the tuition for you. Payment plans are available. We don't want finances to be the cause of anyone not attending Kindermusik classes. We will work with you! Kindermusik is the number 1 best choice for your family!

Your Infant and Our Voices

Your child discovered her voice when she announced her birth with a good cry. Isn't it amazing that from that very first moment, she's had sufficient control over her vocal cords to be able to turn them on when she has a complaint and turn them off when life is good? It's only a matter of weeks before babies start using their vocal chords to express pleasure through babbles and coos. A few month later those babbles turn into vowel sounds such as ahhh, oooh, and eeee. With a bit more strength and control in the tongue and lips, the first consonants come in: Puh, Buh, Muh, and Duh. (Try making those sounds yourself and notice what your lips and tongue need to do.) Some trickier consonants, such as R and L, may not show up until first grade. Even as your infant is making sounds she's listening as well. She's imitating the sounds that you make with your voice. She's also associating sounds with objects, and when she has the pairing straight you'll hear that first dada or mama or cookie.

Fun In Village Class!

Miss Ginger going for a ride on a blanket--a pretend horsey ride!

Walt Whitman

"I hear Ameirca singing, the varied carols I hear;
Those of mechanics--each one singing his, as it should be, blithe and strong;
The carpenter singing his, as he measures his plank or beam...
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench--the hatter singing as he stands....
The delicious singing of the mother...or of the girl sewing or washing.
Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day--At night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths, thier strong melodios songs."
Walt Whitman

Singing

"Singing is related to the ability to control speech fluctuations, and speech activities appear to help develop tuneful singing skills." Playing with rhythmic speech (poems, rhymes, etc.) as well as simple tonal melodies help children develop both singing and speech skills. McDonald and Simons 1988

Our Voices

Our voices do so much for us every day, communicating information or emotion, sounds of surprise or delight, and more. Sometimes considered "the first instrument," the human voice has amazing possibility and range in both speech and singing, as well as vocal sound effects. Children first participate in musical experiences by responding to them with sounds from their voices. As they grow, they begin to control those sounds, matching pitch and singing along, or singing on their own, without accompaniment.

In Family Time class we sing up high and down low, and make music together in vocal ensembles. The whole family gets to sing and play together, allowing them to experience firsthand that every child (and adult) is musical by nature.

Free Offer!

Call today and receive a FREE semester of Sign and Sing classes beginning in April!

                              Be Our Guest -

A Royal Princess Party

Experience the magic and wonder of a princess music & dance party including a princess fashion show, light snacks, face painting and royal take-home treats for our little majesties.
Costumes are a must - or just wear your fancy clothes!
Queens and Kings are welcome to join in the fashion show.
This will definitely be a morning to remember!


Saturday, April 10th 10:30 - 11:30 am
The New Day Center for the Arts 55th&Foster

RSVP: 503-708-2827 / jansonfamily@spiritone.com

Ages: Princesses 2 and up.
Must be accompanied by a King or Queen.
The cost of our Royal Princess Party is $5 per child. Adults free.


Presented by Kindermusik with Angie
kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net; kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com

Unstructured Play:

Research suggests that growing numbers of parents believe unstructured play isn't particularly important. Child-development specialists, however, describe unstructured play as essential to children's growth and crucial in cultivating creativity and imagination. Unstructured play also has a role in expanding intellectual, emotional, and social skills. "In other words, unstructured child's play-the kind with no rules, few gizmos and little or no adult direction-packs a powerful developmental wallop" MacPherson 2002

Freeze Dance!

We've all seen energy build up in toddlers, preschoolers, or big kids. But you can usually redirect this energy with a fun little game. At the same time, you'll be helping to develop your child's physical control and something called "inhibitory control," or his or her ability to start and stop behaviors. Sometimes, all you need to do is turn on some music and play Freeze Dance!

 

All you need to do is:

• Get some lively music going.
• Dance around with your child or encourage him or her to dance -- let your child burn off some of that energy!
• Every so often, quickly pause the recording -- everyone (including you) should immediately freeze!
• To spice things up, after each freeze you can call out a new dance word like twirl, twist, leap, wiggle, or turn.
• Now start dancing like that until it's time to pause the music and freeze again.

Don't have any music handy? No problem! Sing a song or bang a funky rhythm on something you have lying around the house. Stop at random times, just like you were pausing the music.

Redirecting your child's energy into a fun game or activity can work like a charm. Try it next time you see your little one developing a case of ants in the pants

Legato and Staccato:

Legato and Staccato are opposite styles of articulation which can be experienced in various ways: movement, listening, and vocal play. Combining these senses heightens a child's awareness of this important element of music.

Spring

Spring
I love the spring.
For every day
There's something new.
That's come to stay.
Another bud
Another bird
Another blade
The sun has stirred.

Steady Beat

If you’ve ever come to a Kindermusik class, you’ll notice that we will have a steady beat activity every week, in every age group. It might involve shakers, streamers, or drums. Or singing, chanting or lap bouncing. Or maybe moving our bodies or dancing. Or even stomping, gliding or tiptoeing.

A baby hears a constant steady beat (mom’s heartbeat!) by 22 weeks after conception. And every infant is born with the ability to keep a steady beat – his own internal beat. Sometimes in a Village class, a piece of music will match a baby’s own beat, and you’ll see him or her banging away in perfect rhythm!

Steady beat for babies:
Exposure to steady beat (hearing it, feeling it, “seeing it”, being moved to it) is important for a baby’s developing sense of steady beat. An internalized awareness of beat will help him to coordinate his movements.

A baby who is beginning to internalize a steady beat will show it through rocking, nodding, patting and kicking. Later she’ll be able to demonstrate steady beat through clapping and playing a drum to a steady beat. Steady beat will be a key factor in his learning to walk.

Steady beat for toddlers:
Children 18 months through 3 years old are learning to control and coordinate their body’s movements. The ability to keep a steady beat helps in walking with a smooth gait, leading to running and jumping with confidence.

It is at this age that feeling and moving to a steady beat develops the ability to organize and coordinate movements with proper timing – like bouncing a ball and catching it.

Steady beat for preschoolers:
Steady beat competency is central to the development of movement organization, such a marching in time, dribbling and shooting a basketball, using scissors and writing smoothly. Being able to move their entire body to a steady beat leads to the ability to speak and read with a smooth cadence, thereby enhancing communication abilities.

Interesting steady beat facts:
A sample study was done of first and second string NFL players. 100% of the first string players could maintain a steady beat without any external stimulus for 45 seconds. Only 50% of the second string players could accomplish the same.

Tests show that children with steady beat internalization are better readers and more successful in math. Children with better abilities in steady beat are reported to be better behaved in class and have less aggressive physical contact with other students.

It is well-known that a stutter does not stutter when singing or using a steady beat while speaking. A stuttering student figured out her own solution: when she wanted to answer a question, she tapped a steady beat on her leg before speaking. This allowed her to answer without stuttering.

As the result of a study done in 2002 by University College in London, scientists believe that a poor sense of rhythm could be the cause of dyslexia. “Researchers concluded that an awareness of beats can influence the way young children assimilate speech patterns, which may in turn affect their reading and writing abilities.”

Steady beat helps children to understand and organize their world. So if you are going to run with scissors, make sure you’ve got a good sense of steady beat. You’ll run more coordinated and smoothly, and thereby be a little bit safer.

Party This Saturday!

Come Celebrate The Arrival of Spring With Kindermusik!

We’ll be Welcoming the Spring with Music!

Singing, Dancing, Instruments and Face Painting with Miss Yvette

Saturday, March 13th  10:30 - 11:30 am

at

The New Day Center for the Arts

5516 SE Foster Rd, Portland

RSVP: 503-708-2827 / jansonfamily@spiritone.com

Free Book to all who attend!

If you are unable to attend call to set up a Free preview class!

Fingerprints

"It will be gone before you know it. The fingerprints on the wall appear higher and higher. Then suddenly they disappear." Dorothy Evslin

Fun Activities to do at Home

Musical Fingers:
for a quiet activity, try finger-painting to music. Put a dab of four colors on each corner of a piece of paper, play a music CD and see what your little one can create, you too!
a.. Paint using different parts of your hand. Make little dots with side of your hand
b.. Use a cotton swab or wad of paper towel to make designs
c.. Cover the paper completely with paint and scratch in designs with fingernail
d.. Make some special effects using different kitchen gadgets for interesting textures

Rainbow Ribbons:
Attach several three-foot lengths of different colored ribbons to a large key ring or shower curtain ring. Play some music and wave your rainbow high as the music ascends. Make the ribbons bump and jump went he music gets excited, and slowly put the ribbons to sleep as the music slows and ends. Ask your child what colors of ribbon might be good for different songs.

Silly Sing-Alongs

See what happens when you vary one of the classics by applying musical concepts such as high-low, fast-slow, and smooth-bumpy when you sing. How many silly ways can you think of to sing "The Wheels on the Bus?" go deep and slow, or try high-pitched and in double-time tempo. What happens when you jazz up a smoothly melodic song like "Over the River and Through the Wood?"

New Classes Starting in April

Village class: Dew Drops starting Wednesday April 7th 9:30 am, ages: 0-18 months

Our Time Class: Away We Go! starting Friday, April 2nd, 9:30 am, ages 18 mo – 3 yrs

Sign & Sing Class: Sess A/B, starting Wednesday April 7th 10:30 am, ages 6mos – 3 yrs

Kindermusik Birthday Party

We had our first Kindermusik Birthday Party on Saturday.  It was so much fun, the children sang and danced, played with instruments and had a blast with the parachute!

Follow the Leader

An old-fashioned game of "Follow the Leader" is the perfect way to feel musical concepts in your whole body, and it can be played with any number of followers. Have everyone line up. Then put on a CD and let the first person in line move to the music and lead the parade, with everyone else following her leaps, high steps, and arm flaps. After a few minutes the leader goes to the end of the line and the next person takes charge.

Stop! Look! Listen!

High-low, fast-slow,and smooth-bumpy are all around you. Feel the nubly carpet, then the cool, smooth bathtub. Watch a caterpillar inch its way across the sidewalk, then see a butterfly flit from flower to flower. Study the clouds. How would you describe them? If you were going to sing like a cloud, how would it sound? Would a dark thundercloud sound different from a trailing, misty morning fog? When you visit the zoo, don't just look, listen--and then talk about the lion's roar and the monkey's chatter.

"O, mistress mine, where are your roaming? O, stay and hear: your true love's coming, That can sing both high and low." Shakespeare

John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt

Immigrant's names and languages have always been the subject of American jokes and songs, some affectionately well-intentioned and other mean-spirited. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt seems to come out of that tradition. German immigrants began settling in America during colonial times, but the mid-nineteenth century saw a new influx of Germans and other northern Europeans arriving in the United States. Just when, where, and how John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmitt appeared is anybody's guess, but it has the same "endless loop" pattern as another song based on the Scandinavian immigrant experience. To get the full effect of this song, pronounce "j" as "y" and "w" as "v" ("My name is Yon Yonson, I come from Wisconsin, etc.)

My name is John Johnson, I come from Wisconsin,
I work in the lumber yard there.
When I walk down the street all the people I meet,
They say, "What's your name?"
And I say-
My name is John Johnson, I come from Wisconsin...

Somehow a song that just keeps going and going always tickles a four-year-old's funny bone. Think of the ubiquitous "This is a Song that Never Ends," a more recent entrant in this tradition of songs that are good for long hikes, car rides, and testing the limits of parental patience.

Your Preschooler and Concepts and Contrasts

By the time he is three or four, your child will have enough control over his body and voice, as well as enough awareness about musical concepts, to use these concepts to create a specific effect. He'll be able to be "quiet as a mouse" and "loud like a lion." He'll also be learning to coordinate what he does with his body with what he does with his voice. If he pretends to be a turtle, he'll both move and speak slowly and he'll delight in the sudden shift to being a bumblebee, buzzing and zipping around. In fact, your preschooler may know enough about these concepts and contrasts and how they related to the real world, that he'll find it funny if you ask him to be "quiet like a lion!"

Your Toddler and Concepts and Contrasts

Toddlers use their emerging body mastery to learn about rhythm about such basic musical concepts as "high and low," "loud (forte) and quiet (piano)," and "bumpy (staccato) and smooth (legato)." And now that their sensory systems have settled in, most (but not all) children this age will want to be challenged more than they did as infants. Toddlers learn musical concepts kinesthetically, that is, they learn them by feeling them in their bodies. When you and your child moved to Doot Doot Deedle-eet, first smoothly and then bumpily, your child used his whole body to sense the difference. He may not be able to say "smooth" and "bumpy" (that's why we say it for him, over and over), but his body know just what to do.

Your Infant and Concepts and Contrasts

As parents of newborns, we're constantly monitoring our infant's environment and mood. Is the room too hot or too cold? Are the lights too bring or too dim? Is the baby hungry or did I giver her too much food, too fast? At the same time, your child is learning to control her environment by closing her eyes, going to sleep or letting you know when she's uncomfortable. This "too much or too little" aspect of infancy is a study in contrasts that has its musical counterpart in concepts like smooth-bumpy, high-low, and loud-quiet. Newborns, for the most part avoid extremes and like things mellow. But within a few months your child will enjoy dangling high over your head and then swooping down low, and will laugh delightedly when you bounce her on your lap. During Family Time you can help your baby discover these contrasting concepts, but feel free to take her to a quiet corner of the room if the toddler's rhythm instruments get too noisey. It's all about discovering the difference (and balance) between loud and quiet.

"Our life is composed, like the harmony of the world, of contrary things, also of different tones, sweet and harsh, sharp and flat, soft and loud. If a musician liked only one kind, what would he have to say?" Michel de Montaigne

What Are Music Concepts?

They're like different flavors of music, adding distinction and particularity to the song or dance. Volume could be a swirl of chocolate, making the beat more or less intense depending on how much you use. Use a dab of lemon to change the pitch: how high or low do you want to go? Then sprinkle the rhythm with chopped nuts if you want something a little bouncy, or leave the nuts off if you prefer your music smooth. So many choices. So many dimensions. So many possible combinations.

Choose a musical cupcake that is right for the occasion. The bounce-along beat of Belfast Hornpipe is perfect for a car ride, while the softer lilt of Home Sweet Home makes a lovely bedtime song. The good news is that you have an endless variety to choose from, all are delicious, and none is fattening.

"A light exists in Spring
Not present in the year
at any other period
When March is scarcely here."
- Emily Dickinson

Come to preview Sign and Sing class
11:30 am
Today at Milagros Baby Boutique
5433 NE 30th Avenue, Portland, OR 97211
503-493-4141


Kindermusik Teacher
phone: 503-708-2827
web site: www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net
blog: www.kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com
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