Sol La Ti's Music Together

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Songs from other cultures
The Triangle collection is filled with songs from other cultures such as "Má Teodora" (Cuba), "Ala Dal'Ona" (Persia) and "Taba Naba" (Australia).

Songs from other cultures broaden our musical taste and experience.

Other countries may use
- different instruments
- different modes (tonalities)
- different rhythms

The exposure to other languages is also a very enriching experience.

However, if you have a hard time singing in those languages you can always choose to sing on "la la la" and put on the recording to hear the song sung in it's language.

When children run, ride a bike, play on a jungle gym, or throw a ball, they need movement skills such as coordination, balance, and body control.

Since music and movement go so well together, songs can be a great way for children to practice these skills.

Try these activities at home with your child:
Children love how “Allee Galloo” builds from the quiet first phrase to the enthusiastic “wheee!” What makes this song even more fun is to add movement while you sing.

For example:
• Sing quietly as you crouch down to make yourself small. Gradually get bigger and louder; then jump up high on “wheee!”

• Start by making little movements with your fingers. As the song builds, make larger and larger movements with your fingers, then your hands, then stretching your arms up high on “wheee!”

• Dance around the room! Your child will enjoy twisting, jumping, and interpreting the music in his own way.

Can You Do What I Do?

Children love to imitate what they see and hear adults or other children do.

Imitation is important to young children’s learning and development and it’s even more enjoyable during a music and movement activity.

Imitation helps develop a child’s listening skills, attention, and memory.

During the rhythmic chant “Can You Do What I Do?”, children need to listen closely to the leader’s rhythmic sound-play (the “scat” singing), then remember what was said and try to repeat it back.

Being able to listen, pay attention, and keep things in memory are important skills for a child to have for learning new things.

A BIG thanks to all the MOMS who give life, love and nuturing every day.
Their love is unconditional.

They are the one you can always count on

They are the masters of multitasking, handling all the challenges daily life brings, so well.


We celebrate you always but especially today.

As it rains today: Rain Song
Rhymes made up of words that begin with the same letter and have the same repeating initial sound—“tongue-twisters” like “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers”are not only fun for children to say but are also great for language development.

When two or more words have the same beginning letter with the same sound, this is called alliteration.

The ability to hear and speak the beginning sounds of words helps develop language skills that children need when they’re beginning to learn to read.

When children are singing “drip, drop, drip, drip, drop” in the “Rain Song,” they are experiencing alliteration.

Nothin’ Blues
True to its name, “Nothin’ Blues” is in one of the forms of the musical style known as “the blues.”

As an adult, you have probably heard many different styles of music: rock, rap, country, jazz, blues, classical.

It’s important for young children to hear and play with a variety of musical styles, too.

Children can develop an excellent music and movement “vocabulary” through active experiences with a range of sounds, rhythms, instruments, and musical styles—putting what they hear into action through movement and music-play.

What contributes most to the popularity of many children’s recordings?

Maybe those songs whose subject matter are especially appealing or appropriate to your child at this time.

It is fun to sing songs about dinosaurs when children are learning about them or to sing movement and dance songs with lyrics that describe the movements or dance.

Music can be a powerful ally in learning nonmusical subjects because words gain meaning and energy when set to music.

However, recent research in music-learning indicates that words can distract children from the music, particularly the tonal elements of a song.

For instance, in toddlers, the rapid development of language is so powerful that it easily displaces other kinds of learning.

In Music Together, we sing many songs without words so that children will have the opportunity to concentrate fully on the melody and the rhythm of the song.

“French Folk Song” is one of Music Together’s many songs without words.

Because children do not have to process both language and music at the same time, songs without words allow them to focus on just the music.

Songs without words are also often the first songs in which pre-verbal and dual-language learners are able to participate.

Songs without words also help to support children’s language development in any language, by giving them practice in articulating different sounds and syllables.

You can also try acting out and imitating various instruments

Chants and songs that use a call-and-response pattern naturally support your child’s developing self-regulation—the ability to control his or her energy level, emotions, urges, and behaviors.

In “Rhythms and Rhymes,” each adult and child can take turns being the leader by “calling” out a verse (“Walking along on my feet, feet, feet”) while the other stays silent. Then, the other “responds,” repeating the same verse.

When you are the leader, your child has to pay attention, listen to the words, and wait for their turn to give a response at the right time, building self-regulation skills. Leadership skills are developed when it’s your child’s turn to lead.

Hopping and Sliding
Did you know?
One way that children learn what something is, is by comparing it to something it isn’t—that is, through contrast. Experiencing contrasts such as big/small or fast/slow help children recognize patterns and sequences, and make connections and logical predictions. These are all important parts of early math skill development. “Hopping and Sliding” offers many opportunities to play with contrast.

Try this activity at home:
Say this chant along with the beat and rhythm of the recording. Then you and your child can come up with other ways to move or sounds to make that are opposite or different. For example, along with the beat and rhythm of the music, try tiptoeing and stomping, sliding and hopping, laughing and crying, or chanting softly and then loudly. By exploring how these movements and sounds feel in the body, your child is naturally experiencing patterns and sequences through contrast.

Obwisana Stone Passing Game - 2nd graders Lincoln elementary school. January 21, 2014.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." From his famous August 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech.

wishing all of you a wonderful Holiday Season

So often in class I find parents and caregivers get nerous when their child either becomes interested in other things and wonders or if it just sits and does not do what the teacher models. Rest assured, they take in the music and learn! Put on the music at home and you will be surprised.