Music for Mobility

This week our practice-a-thon has begun for the piano students at the Imaginations Music Studio. We will be raising money to send wheelchairs across the world to those in need in faraway places like Haiti through the Free Wheelchair Mission. One wheelchair can be bought for less than $60! Think of the impact even ONE wheelchair can make to its recipient and their family. Our goal is to raise enough money for 10 wheelchairs. Help your child to get pledges per minute, hour or day of practice for the next 2 weeks. Flat donations of any demonination are also accepted. Log your child's practice time in minutes for the next 2 weeks on the form that came home this week after their class or lesson. The child with the most practice time at the end of the 2 week period will recieve a prize!

Check out our Fundraising website, Music for Mobility

Logging practice time also helps your child to see the direct correlation between practice and progress. The competition of a "practice-a-thon" can also spur your child on to practice more than they might usually practice. There will be more info about practice time on your child's log.

I would like to encourage Kindermusik student to participate as well. I will make a jar available to collect loose change at the Cherubs Clubhouse. So bring by your loose change or cash to your next class if you would like to participate. The next time you buy your child a freezy pop or a drink at the Cherubs Clubhouse, donate the leftover change to mobility for those in need. Also, feel free to post our offical Music for Mobility fundraiser site and email it to all your friends as well. Let's raise awareness for this need and see if we can make a difference in someone's life!
Music for Mobility

Summer camp expo, Kidsfest, and Mom's market

The Cherubs Clubhouse and the Imaginations Music Studio was represented today at the Birmingham Parent magazine summer camp expo at Brookwood mall. We will also be represented soon at the Mom's Market in Pelham, and at the Birmingham Kids Directory Kidsfest in Hoover. We have a lot of classes going on at the Cherubs Clubhouse and some great summer programs and camps coming up! Contact me for more information at imaginationsmusic@bellsouth.net

We also just finished up our "Share the Love" fundraiser at the Cherubs Clubhouse. The event was a sucess and fun for all. Our piano studio will be doing a fundraiser to help raise money for Haiti very soon as well.

ABC Music and Me finishes up Sounds Abound!

Tomorrow in Lesson 4, your child will :
• Read graphic notation by associating symbols with
sound effects.
• Played cups as part of an ensemble.
• Used cups, a one-bell jingle, and lummi sticks to create
sound effects.
• Played high notes, low notes, an elbow-to-wrist
glissando, or knocked on the keyboard to create
sound effects.
• Hummed along to a familiar tune.
• Created vocal sound effects for a story.
• Listen to the trumpet and observe how a cup mute changes the timbre of the instrument.

Humming is the perfect way to
practice pitch and melody without being distracted or encumbered by the words. In class tomorrow, your child will pretend to be in a boat an hum the tune “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.”


Bring the learning home!
Turn travel time into quality time with a game of “Name That Tune”! Take
turns humming a tune to be identified.
If your child seems to be struggling, sprinkle some words in as a hint. For example, for “Happy Birthday” you might do the following: “hm-hm hm hm to you, hm-hm hm hm to you.” How fun to discover you can sing with your mouth closed!

Next week we will begin our next unit...

An Outing at the Park

I couldn't think of a better location to teach today's Kindermusik class than an indoor park like at the Cherubs Clubhouse! Our Family Time class this morning was focused on an outing at the park. We made animal sounds, took a walk, shooed flies, and had a picnic. After class, the group went to play on our indoor playground equipment. Our class seems to be growing a little each week and that is wonderful!! We had 3 new students this week!

One activity that can be carried into the home is the water bottles we used as a scraping instrument to sound like a croaking frog. Our bottles had beans in them which also turned them into shakers. Another alternative would be water with a touch of food coloring. So many parents are interested in getting their toddler into piano, guitar or violin lessons. I enjoyed watching our class this morning enjoy the simple water bottle instruments. There is no limit to creative exploration with the simple instruments like shakers, scrapers and sticks. There is also not a "wrong way" to play them. The children this morning even seemed to enjoy just looking at the instruments. This provides them with much more creative options and sensory stimulation than a more complicated instrument like piano as well as preparing them for the piano by working different groups of fine motor muscles in their arms.

Our circle "dance" today was a big hit too. The younger kids were carried in their mother's arms as they watched, listened and physically felt the steady beat. Some of the older kids participated on their own and did a great job of following along with the class! Way to go! Our circle dances also draw the child's attention the form of music. Most music has an A and B section. By changing our movement on the B section, the child experiences this in an auditory, visual and kinesthetic way.

In several of our activities, we were providing an example of how to follow directions to the child. The younger children may not be able to follow multi-step directions yet, but they will learn as they hear their parents echo the teacher, as they see the older kids participate in the stop/start activities, and as they are carried through the motions of the circle dances according to the instructions.