Why Music?
Music is becoming an increasingly important part of our play. Music is great for dance parties and altering sour moods. But it’s great for so much more, too. Music is good for learning, bonding, communicating, and creating! As we have gotten to know various albums, specific songs have sparked art projects, gifts, and parties. With so many opportunities to review and share new music here on the blog, I’ve felt inspired to explore and elaborate on the connections we’re making between music and other early childhood education activities.
Welcome to the Fourth Edition of Mixed Media!
In each Mixed Media post I’ll share a song and a creative project that was inspired by the song. My hope is that you will be inspired to share music with your little one in a way that gets you two (or three or four!) connected to each other and to your creative sides. This week’s song is Mama Dada Blues by Vanessa Trien and the Jumping Monkeys. You can pick up Bubble Ride on Amazon to add to your music library. It’s full of awesome songs.
As we have got to know this song, I kept envisioning cute baby faces showing different expressions. It’s so fun to look at pictures of our kids as babies and all the facial expressions we were able to capture. As we listened to the song I asked them to listen for 1) how old the babyis, 2) what things the baby is thinking, and 3)what the baby is actually able to say. With a new baby joining our family this summer, I used this as a way to prepare the kids for what it’s like to have a non-talker around again.
For our craft I found several pictures of babies with different expressions in magazines and online. I also cut out several shapes and sizes of speech bubbles. Each of us chose a piece of construction paper and the baby faces we wanted to use. After gluing our faces to our papers, we glued a corresponding speech bubble down. Then we filled in the bubble with what we thought the baby was trying to say based on their expression.
Elli matched up lines from the song with her baby pictures. Scott said, “What’s your name?” I don’t know if he was asking the baby or if that’s what the baby was asking us! Sammi was very creative in what her babies were expressing. We all had so much fun thinking of what could be going on for these babies. I was amazed to see how well the girls could recognize and explain the different emotional expressions in the babies.
Don’t forget to grab Bubble Ride and a magazine today and share this activity with your little one.
[…] If you love to craft with your little one, this Twinkle Twinkle Little Star craft for preschoolers has been a big with with our kids when they were preschoolers. Another favorite with our kids was when we tried to guess what babies were thinking with this fun craft inspired by the song Mama Dada Blues. […]