Celebrate Music in our Schools Month with Daria

Posted on March 21, 2012 by viviankirkfield

What a special treat I have for you today!

Daria, a gifted musician who believes that music is food for the body, mind and soul, shares her talents with children around the globe. Several weeks ago, she offered to do a guest post on my blog. As you can imagine, it took me less than a second to accept her offer!

Children love music…they enjoy singing and playing instruments and, if you’ve ever watched young children dance; you’ll have seen how their entire bodies are involved in the activity. Music is another tool we can use to help children develop a positive self-image. Thank you so much, Daria, for all that you do in your mission to spread music to children around the globe!

So, without further ado, Daria is sharing several awesome ideas to help us celebrate Music In Our Schools Month. Make sure you read through to the end…because she is also giving away several amazing posters.

MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS, PRESCHOOLS AND HOMES THIS MONTH

Making music is one of those wonderful “can do” activities to share with your children. Even the youngest toddlers can shake a rattle, clap to a beat or craft a simple instrument with you. Together you can do the simple actions of Itsy Bitsy Spider or the motions to Kumbayah. Or they can offer you the names of their friends to be used in a slightly different version of “Oh Susannah”. With very little work and a whole lot of fun, you can incorporate some great musical play into your home, school or home-school day. Check out some of the ideas below as well as DARIA’s fun KIDS MAKE MUSIC poster give-away!

THE QUIETEST RATTLE – SHARING MUSIC AND LEARNING TO LISTEN

Ask any pre-k or kindergarten teacher – mixing arts and crafts and music generally makes for a big hit in the classroom. One fun activity perfect for this age group is creating really quiet rattles.

The project is simple. Have each child bring in any recycled container, preferably a see-through one and have a few extra so no one is left out. You can decorate the outside with stickers or wrap a handle with pipe-cleaners or yarn before you are ready to fill them. Here’s the tricky part. You want to find lots of things to put in the rattles that are really quiet. The teacher can have some examples of rattles that are not so quiet for comparison (see our suggestions below) and then challenge the children to fill theirs with something that will make noise but still be very quiet. Q-tips, salt, tiny pasta, cotton puffs, confetti? Each makes a different quiet sound that helps kids practice the art of listening. When you’re done, make sure you seal each rattle with a strong tape (such as electrical tape) which ensures the contents will not get out. Then your class can use their new instruments to play along to quieter music. The kids can pay attention to how the rhythms of their rattles fit into the music they are hearing.

You can even have a contest in the classroom and reward all entries or ask the kids for their suggestions about which of the teachers rattles would win a “Quiet Contest”. Stack up a variety of rattles and the class can guess which might make the softest sound.

Here are some favorite choices for rattle-making:

Quiet rattles: sand, salt, sugar, confetti, cotton balls, craft puff balls, paper bits, Q-tips, tiny pasta (such as pastina or acine de pepe).

Medium Rattles: paper clips, small pebbles, birdseed, small beads, small dried beans, rice, smaller buttons.

Loud Rattles: dried macaroni/pasta, large pebbles, large beads, coins, large dried beans, and larger buttons.

BE A GUIRO HERO – MAKE MUSIC WHILE SHARING LATIN-AMERICAN CULTURE AND LANGUAGE

Creating a simple guiro can be a fun way to share Latin-American culture, a bit of Spanish language and music-making skills at the same time. A guiro is any small percussion instrument that has ridges which are scraped or rubbed creating rhythmic patterns. The craft below shows you how to make one from an unsharpened pencil, a recycled water bottle (with ridges) and some string or other decorating material. It’s easy, fun and sounds great! You can see, hear and color a guiro as well at the link below.

When you’ve completed your instruments, you can play them along with any simple songs in Spanish such as the counting song: uno, dos tres amigos (one and two and three good friends) or try the Spanish version of the Itsy Bitsy Spider (La Araña Pequeñita). Or what about La Cucaracha? Below you’ll find a link of a video of my version of La Cucaracha with Spanish and English lyrics, complete with dancing cockroaches (cucarachas) that actually play their guiros!

SEE, HEAR OR COLOR A GUIRO:

http://www.dariamusic.com/guiro.php

MAKE A GUIRO INSTRUCTIONS:

http://www.dariamusic.com/make_Guiro.php

La Cucaracha Video (with Spanish and English Lyrics)

www.vimeo.com/dariamusic/la-cucaracha

A WHIMSICAL WASHBOARD – FOR CREATIVE MUSICAL FUN

What can be used to make music? Practically anything! The musical washboard is proof that people have found creative ways to make music from all kinds of interesting objects. You can see, hear, color or find complete directions on making a kid’s size washboard from easy classroom materials at the links below.

Once you’ve made your own washboards, you can play along to any music but they sound particularly good with old-time music and classic songs like Grand Old Flag, You Are My Sunshine or This Little Light of Mine. And you can make some best-loved songs new. You can sing “Oh Susannah” with the names of your students instead (singing a different version each day or each time with a new student’s name so no one is left out).

Do you have a folksong or popular kid’s song that you want to teach your class? This is a great way that the kids can sing and play along with a favorite song at the same time.

SEE, HEAR OR COLOR A WASHBOARD:

http://www.dariamusic.com/washboard.php

MAKE A WASHBOARD INSTRUCTIONS:

http://www.dariamusic.com/make_Washboard.php

AN ALBUM OF FAVORITE SONGS FOR KIDS – GRANDCHILDREN’S DELIGHT

http://www.dariamusic.com/cd_grandchildren.php

Although March is Music In Our Schools Month, there are no limits to how this powerful and powerfully fun tool can be shared at any time of year. Feel free to inspire your children through song…chances are good that you will have a happy and harmonious day!

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Find Out More About MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS MONTH:

www.menc.org/events/view/music-in-our-schools-month

Check out DARIA’s World Music For Kids website:

www.dariamusic.com.

Check out DARIA’s Tiny Tapping Toes BLOG

(Music For The Very Young)

tinytappingtoes.wordpress.com

Check out DARIA’s Making Multicultural Music BLOG

(Sharing Diversity Through The Arts)

http://makingmulticulturalmusic.wordpress.com

A WORLD OF MUSIC FOR KIDS – POSTER AND POSTER GIVE-AWAY

To celebrate Music in Our Schools Month, DARIA has created a “WORLD OF MUSIC FOR KIDS” poster and poster give-away.

If you’d like to win, please leave two comments…one on Daria’s Making Multicultural Music Blog at www.makingmuslticulturalmusic.wordpress.com and one on this post about why you love music or the impact music has made in your life and/or your child’s life. Five lucky winners will receive a World of Music for Kids poster.

We also encourage you to sign up for Daria’s monthly e-newsletter (http://www.dariamusic.com/monthly_song.php ) so you can get free mp3’s each month, news of other contests, crafts, activities, and other musical fun.

Project 365 and the 2012 Positive Parental Participation Challenge

Posted on January 5, 2012 by viviankirkfield

Last year, bloggers on WordPress were given a challenge to write a post every day…it was called Post-a-day-2011.

This year, another daily post challenge has been issued by WordPress…Project 365. Why not Project 366 since 2012 is a Leap Year with 366 days? However, I guess if bloggers are able to write 365 posts in 2012, I’m sure they will consider themselves an unqualified success…I know I would.

I took part in the 2011 Post-a-day challenge and started out 2011 writing posts every day…this lasted about three months. After that I tried to post at least twice a week…sometimes I succeeded, but other times I didn’t. I take my hat off (or would if I wore one) to those bloggers who completed the task and made it to the end of the year, still posting every day.

For 2012, I am throwing my hat into the ring (even though, as I’ve already stated, I’m not wearing one) and will try to provide a post of value for every day.

In addition, I’m also issuing a challenge to every parent of young children. Make 2012 a year of engagement with your child! Read with your child every day! Be positive and consistent! Get back to the basics and spend time with your child doing fun-filled educational self-esteem building activities, like arts and crafts or simple cooking experiences. Keep a journal of the picture books you read and the activities you do. Share them here with us.

At the end of each month, there will be a prize of a picture book awarded to one family. During the year, any parent who is participating in the challenge and wishes to buy a copy of Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking will receive an additional $5 off my website price. I’ll set up a special PayPal button to reflect that discount. This award-winning book is a unique resource for parents and teachers…it pinpoints 100 picture books every young child should hear and then provides a story summary, parenting tip, simple craft project and easy cooking activity for each of the recommended titles.

Why should parents use Show Me How? The author of the Angelina Ballerina series says, “Parents will find inspiration in this delightful guide to reading and planning activities with young children.” And the creator of the Clifford the Big Red Dog series adds, “Show Me How is a wonderful resource for parents who care for their children and hope to better their reading and learning experiences.”

Parents…make this a fun-filled self-esteem building year for your child!

Join the 2012 Positive Parental Participation Challenge!

A small investment of your time will bring a great reward for your child!

The Show Me How program requires no batteries!

The activities are powered by your child’s imagination!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – Colorado Springs PBS Kids Fun Fest at Acacia Park

Posted on June 13, 2011 by viviankirkfield

Hundreds of happy children and their parents turned out for the Southern Colorado Rocky Mountain PBS Kids Fun Fest on Saturday, June 11^th at Acacia Park in downtown Colorado Springs.

With music and entertainment on the bandstand and Clifford the Big Red Dog and Curious George in costume, Acacia Park came alive. It was also the official opening of the Uncle Wilbur Fountain that many children enjoy during the hot summer days.

I was thrilled to be partnering with PBS and even before the event got underway, early visitors stopped by to check out the SHOW ME HOW table. Almost 70 parents filled out an entry for the free craft supply kit…and the winner is…Dawn!!! I’ll be emailing her today to let her know she is the lucky winner!

Many of the participants at the Fun Fest offered activities for the children…at the Show Me How! table, we were crafting Curious George paper plate faces and Clifford the Big Red Dog headbands with doggy ears. Easy enough for a very young child to do and so much fun…using inexpensive materials that parents already have around the house…paper, crayons or markers, a paper plate, scissors and glue. Hundreds of happy children walked away proudly wearing their Clifford headbands and waving their Curious George paper plate faces.

It was amazing to see how much the children enjoyed these simple art activities. Even though my book is geared for children ages 2 to 5, many of the older children sat down and eagerly began decorating their headbands or paper plate faces. Just because the headband was for Clifford the Big Red Dog didn’t mean that the children had to color it red. In fact, there were many rainbow headbands and others with detailed designs. One child decided that his Curious George paper plate face needed to be a frog instead of a monkey and so he used green markers to color it in. Hurray for the uniqueness of every child!!!!

I was so happy to see the parents participating with their children because that’s what Show Me How! Build Your Child’s Self-Esteem Through Reading, Crafting and Cooking is all about! The book is a road map for parents and teachers…open it to any page and you will find a picture book suggestion with summary and a simple craft project and an easy recipe.

Are you overwhelmed and tired at the end of the day? I know I was when my children were small. I would have loved to have a resource like Show Me How! In fact, that’s why I wrote the book, because I realized that many parents have so much on their plate these days, they often don’t have the time or the energy to plan fun-filled educational self-esteem-building activities for their little ones.

Please head over to my website where you can purchase a copy of this amazing award-winning book for only $22.50…that’s a 50% saving off the cover price! You can’t get much for under $25 these days when it comes to gifts and Father’s Day is right around the corner. Chris Singer @bookdads is doing a tribute to fathers and I did a guest post on his blog. You’ll have fresh ideas for the whole summer and beyond! And here’s a BONUS: if you purchase a copy from my website during the next 14 days, you’ll be entered into a drawing for a free craft supply kit for your preschooler…safety scissors, glue stick, construction paper, and more!

I’d also like to remind anyone who is local to the Colorado Springs/Monument Colorado area that next Saturday, June 18^th from 11am to 2pm there will be a town-wide festival for children called the Summer Soul-Stice. I’ll be at the Covered Treasures Bookstore, crafting with children. There was an announcement in the Denver Post and other local papers about it…so I’m hoping there will be a big turnout! Please stop by and say hello.