A Music/Uke project with 3-4-5 years-old children

Hello Community friends! I feel like Iā€™m over the moon with this news I have to share :upside_down_face:

It was a couple of months ago when our headmaster told us there were this year some extra money to spend on projects for our schools; she also said she would like better to enhance the human resources within the institute, from kindergartens to secondary schoolsā€™ teachers. We only had a Theatre play including a puppet workshop on our plate so I wrote a WhatsApp to my colleagues saying ā€œIf you want I couldā€¦etcā€ - a simple ā€œwowā€ and nothing else than that was the only response I got, so I thought they were not interested, butā€¦after a couple of days we had our scheduled teachersā€™ meeting and :see_no_evil: they all wanted my Ukulele Project! So here it isā€¦it started right this past week: 4 schools out of 6 (mine and another one are having the Theatre) with 7 or 8 sessions each school. It seems pretty much impossible! Here are the targeted groups in each school:
A. 18 children/mixed 3-4-5 yo
B. 22 children /4 yo
C. 11 children / 5yo
D. 53 children / mixed age divided into two groups.
A and B children will have a little songbook at the end of the project; C an english songbook; and D children a colourful painted uke, something like these little guitars we made last year with my class for a Rocking around the Christmas Tree coreography.

So they all have a cool final product to bring home, to document the activities and, hopefully with some sweet memories weā€™ll build together! Iā€™ve been pretty busy this past month to organise the activities and prepare all the materials. Here are our Ukesā€¦

The first session went pretty well, the children loved the Ukes!
As a first thing, to know eachother I proposed a little game that I often do with my class: we were all sitting in circle and I had put all the ukes and the other stuff in the middle of it; first I took my recorder and played some notes and we had a short conversation on that, then after clapping along each name I asked how many notes we needed to sing our name: easy, right? You just count the syllables youā€™ve found with the clapping! Sil-Viaā€¦2 notes on the recorder and then you can sing the name! It was fun, they all did well and if someone was a bit shy the other children would sing the name with or for him/her! I was making it easy with the notes and play from low to high when a little boy said he would rather sing his name from high to low :heart_eyes: kids are smart eh! Then I got fancy with the notes and played triads, mono-notes names, small and big jumps and octaves tooā€¦someone tried to sing before waiting for the notes but someone said ā€œNo! You have to listen first!ā€ Ehā€¦ Listen :heart_eyes: The children were all engaged in the game but the ukes were there and they wanted to strum them!

So after completing the namesā€™ game I said we were going to take them but that I needed just a couple of minutes more of their attention: I strummed a 8 bar chord progression on my uke, someone clapped along, someone had a little dance and when I asked if they liked it they said yes it was niceā€¦then I said ā€œNow I turn these little white keys, letā€™s see what happens!ā€ā€¦and when I strummed as expected they brought their hands to their ears and said it was awfulā€¦ ā€œthis is why you wonā€™t turn the tuning pegs, will you?ā€ā€¦butā€¦you know to a 3 yo kidā€™s eyes turning the tuning pegs is as much if not even more interesting than strumming the uke itself :joy: ā€¦and as expected someone turned them in the end :joy:
And after that I retuned my uke and we strummed and sung, they strummed along with me and I told them that as a real Rock Band we had to start together and we tapped and counted 1 2 3 4! A little girl proudly showed me some tattos on her arm, affirming she was already a real rock-star :joy:

Wow wow wowā€¦second session starting from tomorrowā€¦Iā€™ll move on from this first one, something more about the notes, the tuning and about Rhythm as well! Wow wow wow! :grin::star_struck::smiling_face_with_three_hearts::blush::smile::hugs::heart::partying_face::wink::upside_down_face:

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Heart warming Silvia, good work :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thanks Dave :blush:

Thatā€™s awesome, Silvia :smiley:. Iā€™m so happy for you and the kids, that your project got accepted.
I wish you many funny and musical hours. Youā€™re sowing seeds - who knows, where this might lead to :star_struck:.

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thatā€™s great news Silvia. Music is the best gift you can give someone, it will last these children a lifetime.

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What a wonderful story Silvia and great project. You sound like a really cool teacher bet the kids love you. Never even got to blow a recorder at that age unless your parents bought oneā€¦a waste of money apparently :unamused:
Wishing you every success with your students.

:sunglasses:

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I wish Iā€™d had a music teacher like you when I was that age!

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Lovely story Silvia! They are lucky children to have music :musical_score: in their school day! Itā€™s magical how little kids can make things that a grown up takes for granted and turn into a special adventure! So happy for you!!!
It makes me wonder how many of us here in the Community could help young people be more musical?!?!

Tod

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What a wonderful project Sylvia. Iā€™m sure it will have a lifelong impact on the kids. Well done.

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Hi Sylvia, what a wonderful project youā€™ve created! You are a wonderful teacher, full of creativity and heartwarming adiction to what you are doing! Itā€™s so important that children can get those early experiences with musical aspects, you are sowing the seeds for moreā€¦ :heart:. I wished I had a music teacher like you! Our musical education in school was primarly based on abstract music theory and singing boring old german songs.
I wish you all the best for this wonderful project :hibiscus:!

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This is amazing Silvia, so pleased for you and the kids on your project! Hope that it continues to go well :slight_smile:

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Silvia that sounds like so much fun! :smiley:
You are so creative :star_struck: the children are so lucky to have you as a teacher and to be part of this project. Itā€™s so joyous and heartwarming
Thank you for sharing this :smiling_face: :sunflower:

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How fabulous Silvia. Wonderful to bring such a gift and joy to the children

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Hi Silvia,
That quote above is the most important thing for now :smiley: :sunglasses:, of course not all those children will play an instrument later and remember this stuff , but at least one :sunglasses: (who will later ignite others) and maybe 5 :smiley: or ten :crossed_fingers: :partying_face: :smiley: ā€¦

Either way it is very great fun heart-warming amazing cool sweet nice wow smiling stuff you do :heart_eyes: :star_struck: :sunglasses:

Greetings

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@liaty @TheMadman_tobyjenner @NicoleKKB @Helen0609 @Notter @CATMAN62 @stitch
@davidp @Avalon426 @sairfingers

Thank you all so much for sharing my enthusiasm! But please please please do not call me a Music Teacher because Iā€™m not!

Itā€™s being very much fun insofar but I feel it also as a big responsalityā€¦ I have immediate feedback and I can say if theyā€™re enjoying the activities and having fun or not and I can modulate things on the way, and also gain more self-awareness myself. Weā€™re not doing much in the end, I prefer to do less, have a relaxed time where I can invest more energy in observing the individuals and give some more care to those who need itā€¦yesterday two children didnā€™t want to have a try at strumming the ukes, I let them be, they said they were tiredā€¦but when I went away I told them that maybe next time they wonā€™t be tired and might have a try with the ukes, they smiled and said they will!

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@theoldman66 @roger_holland the reply above is for the two of you as well!

Absolutely!

They are the gifts and joys :heart:

We all have our own musicality, being able or wanting to connect with it might be also a personal choiceā€¦and we need to respect it. Playing an instrument requires discipline and work (not the uke :joy:) for manyā€¦most of us I guess are not in the talented ones who learn fast categoryā€¦simply someone might prefer to spend their spare time otherwise and enjoy music by being avid listenersā€¦what I think we can do is helping others to be more self-confident, making them understand that they can do it; I was one who felt pretty much hopeless with learning to play the guitar, Justin proved I was wrong and Iā€™ll be forever grateful for this!

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Ok, your just a kindergarten teacher developing your band.

Those are the future enrolling students to Justinā€™s revamped revamped beginner course :grinning:

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:love_you_gesture::notes::guitar: exactly! :joy:

I doubt this though, if our school system doesnā€™t change and find new ways to make students learn languagesā€¦of course Iā€™m good at that too hahaha :joy::joy::joy:

Thanks James :blush:

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Itā€™s fantastic you can bring your many new skills to your classroom. So happy for you!

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What a great project Silvia !!! :exploding_head: Congratulation ! :trophy:

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