A little "fall" in your music

Fall can be a season of mixed emotion for me.  Love the colored leaves!  And the shorter daylight hours give me the opportunity to make some quiet ambience at home with lit candles and fires in the fireplace.  A cup of hot tea to finish off the moment!   But truth be told, I have an underlying feeling of "Oh-no-winter-is-on-it's-way" as I try to keep my shoulders from residing next to my ears, protecting against the cold.  The coming cold ..... brrrrr.

Not being one to dwell on the challenge ahead, I thought today of how autumn can be one of the musical times of year, too.  Not just because you are in Kindermusik classes again, but because there are so many songs and ideas you can use in the fall time that encourage the expansion of your growing young artist.

A couple of examples of this can be found in this semester's activities.   In Village and Imagine That classes we have been using scarves as floating leaves and/or feathers.  Watching them flutter down, twirling ourselves around with them, and blowing them in the breeze created by our breath are ideas all related to autumn.   While we are playing together, children are storing away bits and pieces to use in further pretend play both now as pre-schoolers, and for the future as babies or toddlers.

Walks outside in the fall leaves are a great family activity, but autumn can have it's weather challenges, making the outdoors less appealing.  Wet, cold, early snow.   You can also bring the outdoors in by using something as simple as a paper bag.  Talk about the crunchy sounds with your child.  Hear the sound of ripping paper as you tear the bag into "leaf-size" pieces.  There is something magical about creating an indoor leaf pile and watching them flutter and float :)

A little vocal play with descending "faaaalls" also makes a musical connection between leaves (or scarves!) falling and sounds getting lower and lower.

Although we use our hearing for musical experiences, the sensory exposure  is not limited to sound in these activities.   They can hear the tearing and crumpling, but they can also see the paper get smaller and smaller as we ball it up, they can feel the texture of the paper, and feel the excited atmosphere in the room as we have fun as a musical community.  And by making a paper bag into a pile of leaves, your child's ability to think in new and creative ways grows just a little bit better.

Check out the songs  "Windy Weather" and "Autumn Leaves" on your home CD's or on play.kindermusik.com, and start having some fall weather fun!