The Jensen Journey

What a fun day! Anthony is outside sanding some wood - he's building a little rock wall on the side of our playset - and he has the kids - so I have a minute on the computer . . . anyway - I had a group piano lesson today - we call it a piano party. Last Friday was the recital - and it went pretty good. The kids all did great. And this week instead of lessons I had them all come to my house for an hour and a half of music games and group activities. It was fun. I saw this idea on a website to do 'puddles and sticks'. I made these big puddles and sticks out of cardboard and then built a staff out of these 'puddles and sticks' - the lines being the sticks and the spaces being the puddles. I then had the kids hop from puddles to sticks as I called out 'up a 2nd', 'down a 3rd' etc. At the same time I had a 'thinker' sitting in a chair across the room where they couldn't see - and they were moving a little star wars monopoly chewbaca guy up and down a little paper piano - and then would call out the ending note. They loved it! Then we had 'The Amazing Race'. I broke them into two teams and sent them on a treasure hunt. One clue sent them into the kitchen to 'cook up a melody' using magnets, a paper staff, and interval instructions. Another clue sent them outside to fine a 'hidden rhythm' and then they had to see how many times they could find that rhythm in a bunch of pieces I posted around the yard. Another clue had a memory match game, and a 'clapping duet' - where the kids had to clap different lines of music at the same time. They liked that . . . except that I had Anthony with one group and I was with the other - and I think I helped my kids a little more than Anthony did . . . I had most of the younger kids - and they won. Anyway - at the end we had our 'Munchin' with the Masters' segment. That is where where we all gather around the kitchen table and a 'surprise visitor' comes to call. Today it was Beethoven - and did I mention I have the most supportive husband! He comes down decked in a hat, jacket, scarf, glasses, - he even threw in a moustache - I'm not sure that is 100% historically accurate . . . anyway - but he did have the earpiece. He had the kids shouting their questions to him - because he was hard of hearing . . . it was fun. We enjoyed Beethoven Brownies while the kids interviewed him using questions I had prepared.