THRILLED! THRILLED! THRILLED!
We've all made it through September. It's in the book!
All of the effort of launching the new school year is now behind you.
EXHALE!
You did it!!
What a sense of accomplishment to have made it through the most energy intensive days and weeks of launching the new school year: the never-ending 'to-do' list of setting up your room, meeting your new students & their families, and getting off to a whole new adventure!
It's OCTOBER!
YOU MADE IT!
Don't you just LUV having a map?
Doesn't having a map of your plans secure your arrival?
Are you a list maker?
Don't you long for a map to get you where you want to go?
I saw this 'music-mind-map' in the hallway of Concordia College in Chicago YEARS ago!
I was immediately both fascinated and transfixed.
What a brilliant shorthand *M*A*P* of the uses and benefits of music.
LUV me a MUSIC-MAP!
Truth be told: I took that picture years ago, blogged about it and then 'forgot' about both this image and my fascination with it. Then one day this summer I happened upon 'my' photo while investigating my own Pinterest feed. {I now have 165,000 followers on Pinterest!} Someone had repinned the image -- all of these years later. I was fascinated all over again. It was like a homecoming party. Luv'd it then! LUV it NOW!
What with it being summer at the time and it being my season of rejuvenation, a few extra light bulbs lit! What if I could put my 18.3 years of experience as a 'music-lady' onto one piece of paper? What if I could expand and expound upon the simplicity of the original map with my own spin-on-it? What if? So I got out a drawing board and began!
MUSIC is the heart of it all: the very center.
Next?
Let's take a look at singing within music.
I got out my colored pencils and had myself a ball.
SINGING is indeed within music.
I blogged about it more extensively last month on my personal blog as I finally made progress and got it {my mind map} done!
I think of the singing benefits as falling into two camps:
Lyrics = Language [Reading]
The Beat = Patterns [Math]
In my mind-map all things 'language' are above the center point.
All things beat/math are below. The bedrock. The foundation.
Even after I had my map finished, it took a while to get into pdf format.
Then it took another step to get the pdf uploaded as a FREEBIE at our EARLY EDUCATION EMPORIUM!
Patience, grasshopper.
BANG THE DRUM! Mission accomplished!
Cross it off the list!
It is *NOW* available for your download!
Want to see a dozen bulletin board type music ideas?
Go back to my blog for those!
While I was attempting to get this accomplished,
I searched my own blog's archive for some additional, earlier music support articles.
Here's a dozen directions from my heart to yours.
***This article would be especially helpful if you feel you're out of your element when it comes to music and children. We're talkin' basics!
Here's a different dozen.
This time focused on "Music as Motivator."
This next one is no doubt one of my widest-researched articles:
If you are feeling like there's just not enough time in the day for 'sing-ing'
then you need to read this article for reinforcement to combat the "Wolf at the Door"
and get back to some basics!
Speaking of delayed gratification.....
Last winter began a whole new era of fun for me. We had a day of video filming in a professional studio on behalf of Zaner-Bloser, the handwriting company in Columbus, OH. Green screen fun with two of my WonderPeeps [grand-children] plus a few more!
How I wanted to click my heels and have the videos finished......
PATIENCE!
THE DAY HAS ARRIVED!
THE VIDEOS ARE FINISHED!
THEY ARE UPloaded over to YouTUBE!
THEY ARE FREE!!!!
YOU WILL LIKE THEM!
*Here's a glimpse and an image you could pin for me!
We shot two videos.
The first in the set is called, "SKYWRITING" and is an upbeat,
blast-off to using our imagination, our visualization as a tool for handwriting success.
It features a rocket ship blasting off and an octopus.
It would be great for a 'brain break' and getting some oxygen.
The second video is "Top to Bottom" and I predict will be your favorite.
You can use it EVERY day this month!
The more you use it the more infectious the learning becomes!
It is a marching, getting faster, 'print directionality' master piece if I do say so myself.
Plus there's a duck and a bear.
And moi and my WonderPeeps!
What more could you ask for?
Did I mention that they're FREE FREE FREE!!!!
HURRY HURRY HURRY!
In honor of all of this progress on my "To Do" list, I have a big celebration going on right now,
where there will be a lucky winner of some amazing seasonal, downloadable goodies from some of my favorite bloggers.
You still have three more days to get entered to win!
Follow this link for those specifics!
Deb! Fantastic post... we can all be reminded of how empowering music can be for the learner at any age, especially at the PreK ages...cheers and Bravo!
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