Today was our second meeting of "Fun Fridays". We started the day with our Bible lesson in Daniel 3, again on obedience followed by a game of "Mom says...", a version of "Simon Says" and "Follow the Leader". All to illustrate the importance of obeying God and your parents.
The boys have been reading a book by A.L.O.E. called "The Crown of Success". It's a classic allegory that details the journey of four siblings as they embark into the "Town of Education". They encountered Mr. Learning, who dines on paper and ink, the dwarf Alphabet, Mr. Arithmetic and more. The four children also learn important lessons as they fall prey to Pride, Miss Folly and the pickpocket--Procrastination on their quest to win the crown of success. So many wonderful moral lessons in this book.
Both the boys enjoyed the book and were active participants in our book club discussion.
Our music lesson was on musical form. We discussed binary, ternary and rondo form. Our composer spotlights were on Vivaldi and Kodaly.
We listened to Vivaldi's Spring with a listening map and again while charting the different sections with shapes to represent the rondo form.
I found this great lesson on Kodaly's "Viennese Musical Clock" that uses a hamburger to explain rondo form. The bun changes shape, but is in essence still a bun! In the same way, the "A" section may change a bit within the piece, but is in essence the same section.
After listening once to the piece, we used scarves to show the different sections:
A--Wave your flag; B--Ring of fire (circular motion); C--Bug in a rug; D--Ball and Coda--Throw in the air
Finally, we made our own 4-beat 8-measured movement forms.
As a group, we chose 8 movements from the following list to form our "A" section rehearsing it after each new movement was added:
Tap Head
Tap Shoulders
Snap
Lasso
Chicken
Cool Wave
Roll Fists
Knock Knees
Touch Toes
Heel Clicks
Clap
Hitchhike
Boogie Down
Click Tongue
Windshield Wipers
Back Side
Each movement is performed for 4 beats.
Then, each of the kids made up their own "B" section.
We combined their "B" sections with the group "A" section to demonstrate different form types.
AB, ABA, ABACA
I have taught this lesson many times and these boys amazed me with how fast they grasped the concept and performed on the beat!
A wonderful snack served by our gracious hostess and some free time ended a very satisfying "Fun Friday".