top of page
Popcorn
By Gershon Kingsley
Learning About the beat
Hi there,
This activity explains the musical beat and in order to understand it, let's learn about the human heart beats first!
Please show your child the following picture of the doctor listening to a man's heart beats
Explain to your child that when the doctor uses the statoscope , he hears our heart beats.
Listen to the human heart beats recording and clap your hands with it.
Did you feel a change in the heart beats pace?
The human heart beats are steady and each one of them sounds the same as the other!
If the person that we recorded his heart would start running, how would we hear his heart beats?
We would hear faster heart beats!
If that person would go to sleep now ,how would we hear his heart beats?
The heart beats would be more slowly.
When our body is not making efforts, our heart beats will be in slow pace.
When our body is making efforts, our heart beats will be in fast pace.
Music also has “heart beats “which we can hear and feel.
In slow music we will hear slow beats and in fast music we will hear fast beats.
The musical beat
View All
Anchor 2
Listen and watch how many people clap their hands in the same pace!
Ask your child:
Those people did not talk to each other and agreed how fast to clap their hands and yet,they all clap together in unity!
How did that happen?Who helped them?
They heard and felt the music “heart beats “and clapped with those beats.
The Music’s beats can be slowly or fast and we can feel and hear those beats when we listen to music.
The music’s beats give us the tempo, the pace of the music and determine if the music will be slow or fast..
View All
Body percussion
Playing body percussion with the beat
Playing body percussion with the beat
Listen to the popcorn music and try to clap your hands with the music’s beat.
Pay attention to the Tambourine drum which will help you in finding the beat at the beginning.
Later in the music, when you do not hear the Tambourine, try to continue playing at the same pace.
You can play the beat with other body percussions:
View All
Moving with the beat
Moving with the beat
In the next video you will see 3 colorful frames with figures: yello, green and blue.
Each color represents a different part of the music.
Watch the video,listen to the music and create your own dance, while moving with the beat:
One of you will dance with the figure in the green frame and the other with the figure in the yellow frame.
When you see the blue frame, dance together!
View All
Imitation dance
The imitation dance
Let's imitate each other movements while moving by the musical beat:
The figure in the yellow frame is showing when the first of you will move and dance , reacting to the music beat.
The figure in the green frame shows when the second one will imitate the movements of the first one.
The 2 figures in the blue frame tells you when to dance together.
Decide who will be the first to move and who will imitate and start enjoying!
Do it again and switch roles.
View All
Notes for printing
Notes for printing
Print me
View All
Ta and Hus
What is Ta and what is Hus?
Show your child a card of Ta.
Explain that Ta is the musical note for 1 sound in a length of 1 beat.
Its name is Ta and we play it by making one sound in the length of the word Ta.
Show your child a card of Hus.
View All
Tell your child that sometime we do not want to make any sound in a beat and we call it a silent beat:Hus
Explain that Hus is the musical note for one silent beat.
We say Hus and open our hands aside quietly.
Ta and Hus game
Ta and Hus game
Hide a Ta card and a Hus cards behind your back.
Show your child the cards of Ta and Hus by turns.
When you show your child the Ta he/she will have to react to that card by saying Ta and clapping one clap.
When you show your child the Hus he/she will have to react to that card by saying Hus and opening his/hers hands aside quietly.
Confuse your child and switch the hand that hold the cards behind your back .
You can swirch turns and ask your child to hold the Ta and Hus cards.
View All
Art work
Art work:
Take one color for you and one color for your child and a blank paper.
One of you will start drawing one dot for each beat while seeing the figure in the yellow frame.
The other one will draw one dot for each beat when the music repeats and you see the figure in the green frame.
You will draw together in the figure with the blue frame (please ignore the dancing order).
Please watch the video, listen and start making dots:When the music ends, try to see if you can see figures in your dots and put a line between the different dots.)
When the music ends, try to see if you can see figures in your dots and put a line between the different dots.
View All
The musical bar
The musical bar
Hi , I am so happy to meet you!I am the musical bar.
Hi , I am so happy to meet you!I am the musical bar.
Hi , I am so happy to meet you!I am the musical bar.
In music we arrange the beats in groups.
Each group has one line at the beginning and one line at the end.
Each group is called a bar and usually each bar in one music has the same amount of beats .
In the above bar we have 1 beat with sound and 3 silent beats.
The total value of that bar is 4 beats.
View All
Reading rhythm bars
Reading musical rhythm bars
Please read the following bars and say how many beats are with a sound and how many are without a sound in each bar.
At the end say what is the total beat value of each bar:
Use the rhythm notes cards that you printed to create the bars
Important:
When you see the following lines and dots at the end of a bar or a group of bars , you have to play the notes between those lines twice:
View All
The rhythmic score
The Rhythmic score
The rhythmic score shows us how to play and when to play with the music.
At the beginning of each line you see which instrument plays this line.
We will play with “hand clapping “ the first line in our example.
We will play our “head drum” in the second line!
View All
A Math riddle
The musical Math riddle
Pleast look at the following bar and read it:
Popcorn Ta Hus
Playing by the score
Tell you child that the total value of the above bar is 4 beats.
Ask your child to find out the beat’s value of the popcorn picture .
After your child's answer, please explain:
The whole value of this bar is 4 beats
Ta and Hus together are 2 beats
So.... the word Popcorn has a length of 2 beats!
In one beat you say Pop and in the other Corn
View All
Practicing playing by a score
For the first stage of learning how to play by a rhythmic score you will play the following lines without music.
The parent will be the “conductor” and will show the child which line to play: The clapping line, head drum or stomping foot.
Switch role and let your child be the "conductor".
Let's try to play the above 3 lines with the music
( The adult will be the conductor )
View All
The score video
It is time for the whole score!
Practice reading the whole score from the screen of click :"Print me" for printing the score
Print me
Follow the conductor stick and play the score by the video.
View All
Number 8
The eighth beat statue game
Now your child knows the music and you can ask him/her to react only to the eighth beat.
In the statue game you and your child are going to be one statue and you are going to decorate your mutual statue with 1 plastic bags or 1 newspaper page .
View All
Decide with your child how to connect to each other and make a mutual statue and how to decorate it with the plastic bag.•
Here are a few ideas:
You can lift the bag up in every eight beat.
You can connect with the plastic bag and change the way you are connected at beat number eight.
You can connect the plastic bag to your legs, heads etc.
Count until 8 and change your statue a few times without music.
Put the music on ,start counting the beats and change your statue only at every eight beat.
Ask someone at your home to take pictures of your different statues and we will be happy to see that.
Let's eat
Anchor 1
After listening and working with the Popcorn music you must be hungry!
So... here is a special recipe
Popcorn With Brown Butter and Parmesan
INGREDIENTS:
-
13.5-ounce package microwave popcorn or 1/2 cup popcorn kernels,
-
•3 tablespoons unsalted butter •
-
3 tablespoons grated Parmesansaltase
DIRECTIONS:
Pop the popcorn according to the package directions.
Brown the butter: Melt the butter in a skillet or small saucepan over medium heat.
Swirl or stir the butter with a wooden spoon as it starts to foam and sputter.
Remove the butter from the heat as soon as it begins to turn golden brown and smells nutty, about 1 minute.
Drizzle over the popcorn.
Sprinkle with the Parmesan and ¼ teaspoon salt and toss well
Bon appetit!
AN INTERESTING STORY ABOUT THE BEAT
is waiting for you at "Music that counts "section!
Look for:
"THE REGULAR BEAT OF A KING ON HIS FEET"
View All
bottom of page