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Music, Family & Fun: Winter Solstice Greetings!

CELEBRATING WINTER SOLSTICE

THE WINTER SOLSTICE IS APPROACHING AND I AM WISHING EVERYONE A MERRY, MERRY MUSICAL SEASON!
According to the Hopi, our "Kachinas" ( magical spiritual helpers) leave us to go to the heavenly realm on the Summer Solstice of each year. Then, they return to be with us on the Winter Solstice of each year. I always look forward to their return. Tomorrow, Dec. 21st, there is a musical community celebration in Berkeley sponsored by the East Bay Community Music Project. Here's the site: 
http://www.ebcmp.org/register/


This is a little blurb from the website: The East Bay Community Music Project is committed to building community through fun and engaging music-making experiences for people of all ages. 
What a really great mission statement. I can't wait to get involved.
Here is a sweet remembrance of a celebration and performance at Albion Children's House, my little Montessori program twenty years ago!



Here's to celebrations that light up the winter time!
Peace & love,
Carolyn
PS I would love for you all to check out my new sites:
Updated website:
http://www.magicalmovementcompany.com/workshops_for_teachers.html 

New Magical Movement Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/magicalmovementcompanyandkids?fref=photo


Advertising Disclosure: Magical Movement Company may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Thanks for your support!






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Musically Montessori: "Little Kids and The Nutcracker Ballet Suite"

IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO TAKE YOUR CHILD TO A PERFORMANCE OF THE NUTCRACKER BALLET, then read on...

'Tis the season again, and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet is a wonderful treat for children and adults. If you are planning to take your young child to a performance,  I highly recommend familiarizing yourself and your child with the music as well as the story before attending the event.
I found a wonderful site for purchasing a lovely download of the ballet characters in puppet form here:

Magical Movement Company Blog

I made these Sarah Jane Studios stick puppets for my preschool music classes and then I was able to use them to tell the story the way I thought most appropriate for the varying age groups. 

In the story of the Nutcracker, Clara and her brother are very excited about the big holiday party at their house and both are thrilled when they see Uncle Drosselmier arrive! He is a toymaker and always brings fantastic toys for the children. However, Clara's brother, Fritz, gets jealous of Clara's special nutcracker toy and he ends up grabbing it, calling it "ugly",  and throwing it across the room. 

As a result, the nutcracker gets a cracked head and Clara has to tie a red ribbon around to repair it. At this point, I added my own part of the story saying that when Fritz realized his misdeed, he apologized to his sister. 

For the older children, I included the "Battle Between the Mouse King and the Nutcracker" and played a little of the "battle music" because it is so dynamic! 

However, I changed the story line:
"In Clara's dream, there was a 'Mouse King' dancer who led all the little mice to rush under the tree and gobble up all the sweets. The brave Nutcracker dancer leaped over and tried to scare the mice away. But, they are back! That is when Clara took off her shoe and threw it across the room. The loud sound did scare all the mice away! Let's listen for that loud crash when we listen to this part of Tchaikovsky's music..."

For the younger groups (2's and 3's) I skipped the "battle" completely and went straight to Clara falling asleep with her nutcracker toy in her arms and then dreaming of him turning into the Prince from the Kingdom of the Sweets. 

Then, the story can quickly move to the part about the big celebration at the Prince's castle and the little children seemed to enjoy hearing about the dancers (and seeing the puppets): The Snow Queen, the Sugar Plum Fairy, "Chocolate" the Spanish dancer, and the dancers from the land of Chinese Tea and Arabian Coffee. I played very short excerpts of these dances, so that the children would hear the wonderful music, but would only have to sit attentively for no longer than five minutes. 

I told the children that after the special dances, the Prince and Clara traveled back home in a magic sleigh and then Clara woke up from her dream and found her nutcracker safe in her arms. 

Finally, we got the triangles out and played along to some simple piano versions of songs from the ballet. 
The music downloads I used are:
Over the past 2 weeks I have also played excerpts from the following for movement fun:
Lots of holiday fun with a little classical music appreciation too!

If you would like to learn more about how I present the Nutcracker Ballet Music to preschoolers in a Montessori way, I invite you to check out my Musically Montessori eCourse, "Nutcracker Ballet Suite for Little Kids." It's a four-week curriculum filled with lots of holiday musical fun for Preschoolers. 

I am so happy to have you visiting my blog today! I hope that you have found some fun musical activities for your group.


Advertising Disclosure: Magical Movement Company may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website. Thanks for your support!


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