The Houses on Beat Street

Miss E came home today and busily started making all these paper cut outs. When I got home from work she eagerly asked if she could show me the stories of the houses on Beat street, like her music teacher showed her.  At first I couldn't figure out what they were learning with this but then I realized that this was a way of showing the kids spacing and time in music.

Here's how it goes. It starts out with four empty "houses" (pieces of paper). A single note moves into each one and each have funny voices, some talk really high and some talk really low. Their names are all "ta". So once they move into their houses, you can go down the street and say "ta ta ta ta". Then they decide to have friends (the pink papers with double notes on them). Some have friends and some don't. The friends are named tee-tee (said really fast). So again, you can go down the street and say all the names. Then some one decides to go out to eat (leaving an empty house) and when you go down the street saying the names, you pause at that house because no one is home.

I could not believe what a brilliant way this is to introduce kindergartners to written music and timing. Miss E was super excited and told the story over and over again to us and Mr. T, and while she doesn't realize what this is laying the foundation for (reading music) she does understand the concept of the spacing and the notes. I remember starting to learn about reading music and it was so BORING, that is just made me want to quit the piano. I love that this has become a fun thing for them to learn.

*Spain posts are done! May 3-16 if you're interested.