Saturday, May 2, 2015

Toddler: Using our Voices Like Instruments


Louis Armstrong is credited with creating 'scat singing' (where the voice emulates an instrument by singing nonsense syllables instead of words).  The story goes that Armstrong showed up to a gig having forgotten his horn.  His solution?  Sing all of the parts, instead!  When we focus on specific sounds, or phonemes, in Kindermusik (like when we sang 'moo moo moo' together, during our Hello song), we are making scat-like sounds, too!  Not only that, but we are fostering your child's singing voice, and his reading development.  Nonsense words can help your child focus on a specific sound (like the 'ee'  sound in 'eensy weensy')  Your child gets many opportunities to hear & practice that sound, as we sing the song & do the motions together.  Over time, your child' ears will begin to recognize and remember this sound so that she can also pick it out of other words and use it more fluently.  This awareness of tiny sounds, which are the word-building blocks called phonemes, is a crucial pre-reading skill. 

On our blog: sing with the scat cat, and Scooby-Dooby-Doo-Wap, together!

Kindermusik@Home
  • Log in to your Kindermusik @ Home account, and be Bears & Bunnies
  • Next, cue up the Hello song, on your home CD.  What silly sounds can you think of, to sing together?  Use our ideas from class to get started (la-la-la; moo-moo-moo; doo-bee-doo), then see what other ideas your child might have. 
  • Then, play the Which Dog? game!  Can you make different dog sounds for each one?


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