Baby Programs : Vocabulary in Music

I used photos of babies dressed in fruit costumes cut from an old calendar for the mag board pieces.

Stories to Share: Alligator's Whistle

I've started a new side bar ("Stories to Share") where I'll post the text (and later, the audio ...) of stories I tell or retell.

The sheet music for the "Alligator's Whistle" can be found in The Storytelling Handbook by Anne Pellowski.  I play a recorder during the musical sections.  However, one could also sing, as lyrics are provided in Pellowski's book:

The Microsoft clipart images are used as a visual prompt to remind me what gestures or visual props to use.  Sometime, I'd like to print the text on large poster board, probably in four sections.  Then, the audience could read the story at the same time ...

2011 Summer Reading School Visit

This year, I made my summer reading school visit presentation the same for kindergarteners through third graders.  (It was a thirty minute auditorium visit by grade.)  Here is the outline:

Click here for the "Kye Kye Kule" lyrics and song clip, or
listen/purchase the versions below:

Below are the embedded supporting posters.  (There are also in this blog's "Graphics" folder.)  Images are from Microsoft Clipart.  I used them as a models to draw images for the other motions (not pictured).




I chose "The Alligator's Whistle" which is a musical story from Anne Pellowski's Storytelling Handbook


 , and I included optional audience participation. 

At one point in the presentation, I threw an inflatable globe (our library's summer reading prize/incentive) into the audience.  Whoever caught the globe had to say what they liked.  Of course, whatever they liked, I supported by mentioning the materials that the library had on that topic.  The older kids caught on to this trend and had fun trying to stump me with "likes" such as "cheese" and "sleeping" !!

Overall, the three most important steps I drill into the kids are:

Babies: Share Music

As one can see, I'm including more "performance" pieces for this baby program. 

For example, I played "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on a toy keyboard to further emphasize how music helps children hear the smaller sounds that create words BECAUSE these syllables/sounds/phonemes usually occur on different musical notes.  I hope to eventually make a musical staff poster with this tune, so parents can understand the concept visually.

I also did the unfolding portion of a simple cut and tell nursery rhyme while the audience clapped the syllables.  I hope to soon post a video demonstration of this -- my version of Jean Stangl's in Paper Stories.

Click here if embedded document does not display.

Calef Brown the Poet (Videos)

During the Mazza Summer Institute, Brown referred to the musicality of words as his muse.  He makes a case for reading poetry out loud.  Sylvia Vardell anyone?

 

I first performed "Combo Tango" in graduate school as an audience participation, movement rhyme.  I've been incorporating it into my programs ever since.

Storytelling and Silence

Over the course of about twelve years as a student and also paid, professional musician, I had the privilege of performing under various conductors. At this moment, I can recall at least three separate music visionaries who emphasized the importance of silence.

"Music is made on the background of silence," quoted one.

"What's the most important note of this piece?" asked another as he guided us through Hoe-Down from the Rodeo suite by Copeland. The answer was the collective rest in the second to last bar of the piece.

These bits of comparable wisdom were exactly the kind of images I lacked when presenting "Storytelling Techniques to Use with Preschoolers" last Friday, November 6; I've determined that some of the best storytellers utilize not only the catch all terms "voice" and "pacing," but most importantly, they are not afraid of silence ... the space between thoughts ... and words.

This is what I should have illustrated last week instead of just stating the cliched tip, "Take your time. Breathe."

Next time I should tell stories to teach storytelling ...