I headed out in the cold bright afternoon for my monthly preschool visit with these 10 kids and teachers. I had a couple of new things I wanted to try, and, as always, I like to take some risks presenting material for the level.
I’m trying to write some original songs that apply directly to what they do in school, so today’s song was about The Mystery Bag. I worked up a simple chorus and attempted to make it a game in describing things, texture, size, etc. and we came up with bunnies, ice cubes, ants, giraffes and more. A little unrefined but a good exercise.
I reprised some stuff we’ve done before like Down By the Bay, I Wanna Be a Dog, and then introduced the banjo. We did Place in the Choir, talked about the parts of the banjo, spelled and sounded the letters in banjo. Good intelligences work.
I brought two big hand drums and we explored beats or syllables in the kids’ names, playing them with our fingers on the drums. Nice physical work, hands on and community based play.
We finished up with Little Sally Walker, a play song I introduced last month, and they asked for it right away, and had obviously been working/playing on it during my absence. It was a good way to finish up the long session, and as I reflected with the kids and teachers at the end, we covered a lot of ground.
A good laboratory session for me as well. Good work on this planet.