Thankful Turkeys

Attention shoppers! Allow us to help you kill two birds with one post… here’s a certifiable tool to find a local, organic turkey near you. We are what we eat – and the short-term cost of feeding your loved ones a marginally more expensive, organically fed, hormone-free bird far outweighs the long-term risks of hormone toxicity.

Kindermusik Green - SustainabilityOkay, phew. Let’s eat thankful turkeys. And speaking of being thankful, Thanksgiving is

a great time to sit back and reflect on your family values– what you’re grateful for, and how expressing your gratitude instigates positive change. Countless studies have shown the powerful impact of gratitude on personal mental health—humans build deeper, more mutually beneficial relationships with people when they express gratitude towards one another. This effect is amplified when gratitude is expressed over time, and through written forms of communication (ah, those naggy thank-you notes ARE worth it!). We think the confidence and mindfulness stemming from gratitude might even make individuals more successful in the classroom, in careers, and as creative inventors and thinkers. And, not surprisingly, as environmental stewards.

What aspect of the environment are YOU and YOUR family thankful for? Holiday hikes? Backyard gardening time? Trips to the local compost center?

WIN 50 free Kindermusik songs & $100 donation to your favorite charity by sharing your family’s Green/Sustainability/Eco efforts by 12/07/12.

Submit your posts, pictures or videos to: Facebook.com/Kindermusik.

5 early literacy Christmas activities

Mother Goose could well be called the Mother of Early Literacy. “Hey Diddle, Diddle,” “Little Miss Muffet,” and other nursery rhymes support early literacy by building phonemic awareness through experiences that recognize, repeat, and predict rhymes. Rhyming word play contributes to phonemic awareness as children begin to hear the differences and similarities between words like “moon” and “spoon” and “muffet” and “tuffet.”

Along with favorites from Mother Goose, this holiday season add a penguin to your early literacy activities with Penguin’s Christmas Gift. This story download, created by Kindermusik International, combines rhymes with active listening as children hear the story of a tiny penguin who turns an ordinary tree into an extraordinary one for an extra special Christmas at the zoo.

Download Penguin’s Christmas Gift here and use it in your class next month to support early literacy growth.

4 additional early literacy activities to use with Penguin’s Christmas Gift

If you are like many early literacy educators, your Pinterest boards contain dozens (if not hundreds!) of early literacy activities to use in the classroom. We culled through some of our favorites to use along with Penguin’s Christmas Gift.

  1. Letter P Penguin Craft
  2. Beginning Middle & End Instead of using a candy corn image, use a Christmas tree.
  3. Rhyming Tree Literacy Activity Use branches of a Christmas tree instead. Also for pre-readers, use images and words.
  4. Body Rhyme Early Literacy Activity This early literacy activity isn’t really about penguins or Christmas. We just love the movement and use of rhyming words to support phonemic awareness.

Follow our early literacy and language board on Pinterest for even more ideas.

Early literacy curriculum that uses music as the vehicle for learning

ABC Music & Me, our early literacy curriculum, uses music and movement to teach young children early literacy and language. In addition to the research-based curriculum, ABC Music & Me increases parent involvement in early childhood education by providing families with materials to use together at home.

For more information about using ABC Music & Me as an early literacy curriculum, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

Who ever heard of an impolite Teddy Bear? Nobody! Introducing Unit 4 of ABC English & Me, Hello Teddy

Is there such a thing as impolite Teddy Bear? No! This lovable toy provides a sense of comfort to every child — and every parent who was once a child. In this unit, Teddy Bear will help children learn polite greeting rituals, label different colors and clothes when he gets dressed for school, and he’ll help young children develop gross motor skills and learn to follow directions through simple games such as throwing and catching a ball. All while being huggably polite.

Additional movement activities help children develop an internal sense of control as they play instruments along to the music — stopping when the music stops, speeding up and slowing the tempo.

Target concepts

Following directions
Inhibitory control
Developing gross motor skills such as throwing and catching a ball
Polite rituals and greeting vocabulary

New and reinforced vocabulary words

bear, farm, horse, town, bus, car, bed, kitchen, tractor
teddy bear puts on…, t-shirt, jeans, shoes, socks, sweatshirt, green, blue, red, yellow, white, black, brown

New movement concepts

Turn around, touch the ground, show your shoe, dance on your toes
touch your nose, tap your head, go to bed, wake up now, take a bow
wave your hands, side-to-side, walk, tiptoe, skip, leap
sit down, tap your head, touch your nose, reach up high

Music activities

Playing with sandblocks: tap, up high, down low, fast, slowly, stop, “Let’s play with the music!”
The drum! Focused listening activities include counting and tapping the drum, as well as taking turns with the drum

Available now in the Digital Teacher’s Guides.
To learn more about digital teacher’s guides and Kindermusik, click here.

Kindermusik International leads the way in Digital Publishing for educators, families, and children

Kindermusik Digital Learning Platform for Kids
Kindermusik Digital Learning Platform for Kids
Homepage with Monthly Units

Yes, we’re tooting our own horns a bit because we don’t think a bumper sticker, like “My textbooks fit in my earbuds,” would ever really take off. So every once in a while, we need to celebrate in other ways.

Kindermusik International is leading the way in Digital Publishing. In the last 5 years we’ve been working to convert over 25 years worth of research and curricula, into one easily downloadable system. And the process is running more smoothly than ever before.

No more clunky, spiral bound notebooks. No more children walking home from school, weighed down by an increasingly heavy load of books. And no more paper waste. Kindermusik International’s online textbooks and interactive learning lessons are available on a variety of mobile devices.

Learn more about online Kindermusik Educator training. Click here to receive FREE information on becoming a Kindermusik Educator.

Lesson prep is as easy as updating as syncing your iPod. And Digital Teachers Guides are available online so you can download the lessons and print them out, or, bring your iPad right into the classroom.

And even if you’re not ready to go completely digital, we’ve got you covered, too. You can easily download the class music and activities and burn them to CDs.

Not convinced? Consider this.
Will iPads Replace Textbooks? Seeking Alpha, November 1, 2012
If test scores keep going up, they will. Educators can’t ignore a student’s preference for an interactive tablet over a used textbook, and it seems grades are improving, too. “Houghton Mifflin recently performed a pilot study using an iPad text for Algebra 1 courses, and found that 20 increase in the number of students who scored ‘Proficient’ or ‘Advanced’ in subject comprehension when using tablets rather than paper textbook counterparts.”

America Recycles Day!

November 15th is "America Recycles Day" in the United States, so we’re celebrating all over the world. Here are a few tips from americarecyclesday.org:

  • Tip #1: Plastic bottle caps are usually recyclable along with the bottle!
  • Tip #2 Recycle the TOP (non-greasy) part of your pizza box
  • Tips #3: Check with your local recycling center to learn what numbers are accepted.
  • Tip #4: Recycle the cardboard sleeves from your coffee cup, but not the coffee cup itself – it has a waxy, non-recyclable lining.
  • Tip #5: Take a family visit to your recycling center.
  • Tip #6: Unsubscribe to unwanted mail sources.
  • Tip #7: Check AmericaRecyclesDay.org/find-recycling where you can bring those harder-to-recycle items so that you don’t contaminate your batch.
  • Tip #8: Keep bags for both trash and recycling in your car.
  • Tip #9: Recycling goes beyond the kitchen – recycle shampoo bottles, shoe boxes, or old glass containers when you can!
  • Tip #10: Metals (aluminum) are ESPECIALLY important to recycle because they require so much energy to create.
  • Tip #11: Answer the call to recycle your wireless phone! 100 million of them go out of use each year, according to the U.S. EPA. Donate your out-of-use cell phone to a local charity or find a drop-off facility near you (AmericaRecyclesDay.org/find-recycling).

We just signed the pledge to act and continue to learn about recycling. 34% of the population of the United States recycles. Are you represented in that 34%?

Kindermusik Green - SustainabilityEnter to Win the Kindermusik Green Contest!

WIN 50 free Kindermusik songs & $100 donation to your favorite charity by sharing your family’s Green/Sustainability/Eco efforts by 12/07/12.

Submit your posts, pictures or videos to: Facebook.com/Kindermusik.

Kindermusik Green Competition Extended!

Picture from: http://www.sourcethestation.com/idea/community-gardens/

Picture from: http://www.sourcethestation.com/idea/community-gardens/

“A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.” – Marcel Proust

It’s the “Season of Giving” for many Kindermusik families. For the hard-nosed environmentalists among us, the holidays create a certain challenge to sustain the sustainability mindset when buying, wasting, and indulging are part of the holiday milieu.

THUS, we’ve decided to extend the Kindermusik Green Competition
deadline through Friday, December 7th.

We know you’re busy, but we firmly believe in the positive contagiousness of challenging one another to be environmental leaders by sharing our stories among the community. Environmental leadership is both about standing OUT to set an example for what’s right, and about letting examples of others’ good works to instigate our moral mojo.

Kindermusik Green - Sustainability

KI Green has celebrated company sustainability efforts for over a year. Now it’s time to celebrate YOU.

WIN 50 free Kindermusik songs & $100 donation to your favorite charity by sharing your family’s Green/Sustainability/Eco efforts by 12/07/12.

Submit your posts, pictures or videos to Facebook.com/Kindermusik.

Kindermusik in the Military Community

For military families, consistent, accessible shared musical play classes are often missing, but they’re such a vital part of early whole-child development, bonding, and social-emotional health. Kindermusik is proud to have experienced educators supporting these families on and around military bases and communities world-wide.

And we’d like to expand that. 

Why is music important for military families?

Sometimes it’s hard to stay connected, find community, and build positive learning memories when the stress of deployment, frequent moves, and grief are prevalent.

Research shows that shared music making can play a significant role in instilling calm, strengthening parent/child bonding, supporting fine and gross motor development, and promoting overall social-emotional health (that includes grownups)! 

Pairing music with movement really takes multi-sensory learning to the next level.

Recently, scientists found synchronized dancing (including things like hopping to the beat or circle dances) supports critical developmental skills like cooperation, turn-taking, and empathy

And when it comes to school readiness, a study showed that preschoolers who received just 30 minutes a week of Kindermusik demonstrated 32% greater gains in language and literacy skills.

So, what if there were more early music education professionals who understood firsthand the challenges of military-connected families and could facilitate these positive experiences?

That’s where the Kindermusik Military Spouse Scholarship comes in…

The Kindermusik Military Spouse Scholarship

We know that many military spouses are passionate about early education, specifically music education, and would like to purse that professional path further.

The problem? A flexible training model. 

Kindermusik’s a cappella studio curricula educator courses are on-demand so you can complete high-level pedagogy and teacher training at your own pace. And it’s by age level (spanning from birth through developmental age 7), so that it’s easier to digest and add to depending on your professional goals.

Once you complete a course, you have the option to apply for Accreditation, a mastery level teaching module and exam which, upon passing, allows you to teach Kindermusik’s studio classes anywhere in the world, in person or online. 

We are proud to announce that the Kindermusik Scholarship Program has created the Kindermusik Military Spouse Scholarship to provide:

If you are interested in pursuing or enhancing a profession in early music education, or know someone who would be an amazing Kindermusik Educator, we encourage you to find out more and apply

Find the joy of music wherever you are.

There are Accredited Kindermusik Educators all around the globe offering music and movement classes in person and virtually. Search for one that works with your location or schedule! 

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Save the date! Reggio Children and the innovative approach to early childhood – and bilingual – education

Kindermusik International is pleased to announce two December workshops in Brescia and Reggio Emilia, Italy celebrating the child-centered, parent-inclusive approach to education known as the Reggio Children Approach.

These special workshops were made possible between a special liaison between Kindermusik International’s Angelica Manca and Reggio Children. The organization focuses on research, study, and development to bring high quality, affordable early childhood programs to families around the world.

The Little England Arts Academy is a bilingual arts academy.

Saturday December 1, 2012 in Brescia, Italy

Come visit Niki Scavolo’s gorgeous Bilingual school “Little England” located in the North of Italy (Brescia, Italy). Niki has been a Kindermusik educator since 2009, training more than 10 of her educators and has successfully used Kindermusik to increase student enrollments at her school, both as an afterschool program as well as part of her core curricula. Niki will be walking us through the pedagogy she follows, the alignment with other approaches, such as Reggio Children, and her beautiful facilities! Plus get some Kindermusik training on our new digital material!

Featured speaker Claudia Giudici is President of Preschools and Infant toddler centres of Reggio Emilia and Member Board of Directors Reggio Children.

Monday December 3, 2012 in Reggio Emilia

Become a part of the future by learning more and collaborating on one of the world’s most innovative approaches to Early Childhood Education with Reggio Children! We will be having a tailor-made professional development training day at the Loris Malaguzzi Reggio Children Center in Reggio Emilia (Italy), guided by the lead Reggio Children Pedagogist Claudia Giudici.

Together we will be exploring concepts of “Atelier,” “The Hundred Languages of Children,” and how to use music to foster learning.

To learn more about the Reggio Children Approach, please click here for more information.

Want to know more? Email Angelica Manca at amanca@kindermusik.com

FOL Fridays: Go Ahead and Laugh

Laugh… for your health! Laughter helps strengthen the immune system, lower blood pressure, and reduce stress levels. In addition, humor helps young children handle problems or crisis situations, enhances social skills, and helps them create social bonds and healthy emotional attachments – so laugh away!

Tips for parents: Take a few minutes for some funny faces, silly songs, knock-knock jokes, or just acting silly. Laughing together not only has significant health benefits, it can also diffuse a tense situation and create some special bonds. Who knew a little giggle could go such a long way?!

– Contributed by Theresa Case, whose Greenville, SC program, Kindermusik at Piano Central Studios, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.

Kindermusik classes are filled with laughter and learning…

Try a Free Class Near You!

Everyday Environmentalists

Good morning KI Green, and happy Friday! Submit your sustainability efforts to the KI Star Steward Contest. If you’re holding back because you don’t think your efforts are worthy, you’re probably a better steward than you know. We found an awesome site, “The Everyday Environmentalist” that categorizes sustainable practices by work, play, health, and travel. There are dozens of fresh ideas— we’re sure you do some of them :-). Tell us which of these practices you champion by commenting here!

Here are a few of our favorite ideas. They’re our favorites because they target our biggest-impact habits and offer reasonable “why not” solutions.

  1. Buy “shade grown” or “Fair Trade Certified” coffee. Anyone who depends on a morning cup(s) of coffee deserves to drink the best stuff for them, and for the environment. Keeping the globe caffeinated is a huge agricultural undertaking: more than 5 billion pounds of pesticides are used annually for agricultural purposes across the globe. Further, coffee trees that are grown within tropical forests (not in place of them) provide habitats for over 150 species of migratory birds. These “shade grown” coffee trees benefit both the environment and the actual beans; shade grown beans ripen more slowly giving them fuller, richer flavor. If you can buy locally grown coffee beans, too, you’ll be especially sustainable. Find where you can by “Bird Friendly®" coffee here!
  2. Going paperless. Switching from mail bill pay to online is a serious sustainable feat. If only one in five households switched to electronic bills, statements and payments, the collective impact would save 151 million pounds of paper, avoid filling 8.6 million garbage bags and eliminate 2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, according to The Nature Conservancy. Plus, consolidating your bills online is easier to manage!
  3. Unplug your electronics. Keeping your electronics plugged in keeps a constant flow of electricity going to your circuits. Plus, it increases the risk of electrical fires and blown fuses. Try plugging in proximate electronics to a power strip, and make it an older child’s nightly chore to safely unplug strips every night before bed.

So there you have it, Star Stewards! Check out the Nature Conservancy’s other great ideashere.

Kindermusik Green - SustainabilityDon’t forget to submit your OWN ideas and efforts to win the Kindermusik Green Contest.

WIN 50 free Kindermusik songs & $100 donation to your favorite charity by sharing your family’s Green/Sustainability/Eco efforts by 12/07/12.

Submit your posts, pictures or videos to: Facebook.com/Kindermusik.