After learning about the children’s musical keywords, Stuart introduced one.
Teacher Stuart: Forte! It means loud.
Felix connects a previous experience with Stuart and the new keyword: Like last time when I said, “falling down tree”. That would be forte.
Lev: What’s the opposite of forte?
Zoe B: Quiet!
Stuart: That would be piano.
Zoe: Does quiet get any quieter?
Stuart: Pianissimo.
As we talked about each word, we played the drums accordingly. Later, the children drew symbols to represent each word.
Piano – Zoe B. Mezzoforte – Kyler
Fortissimo – Felix Crescendo – Jagger
Kyler: I drew mezzoforte. That’s medium. The sound stops in the middle.
Jagger: I drew something different. It’s going from loudest to quietest.
Stuart: That would be a new word called crescendo.
This inspires Lev to draw the opposite symbol leading us to learn about decrescendo.
Decrescendo – Lev
Later the group used the symbols to conduct each other in a drumming exercise.
We plan to use the symbols the children created as a language for the group and create patterns for each other to read and to respond musically. -Teacher Sam