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Contents
Posts
“Chanson d’Automne” – Autumn Song – A Poem by Verlaine
Monday, November 26th, 2007Here is one last poem about Autumn before I focus on the topic of the upcoming December holiday season.
I came upon this poem while looking for French podcasts to brush up on my French in anticipation of a trip to France in the Spring. There’s a whole podcast in French devoted to this poem that you can listen to. It inspired me to come up with my own translation, which you can read below.
Chanson d’Automne is a very sad poem that was written by Paul-Marie Verlaine in 1866. Most French people are familiar with this poem as it’s taught in school. French children are often required to learn it by heart.
Chanson d’Automne
Les sanglots longs
Des violons
De l’automne
Blessent mon cœur
D’une langueur
Monotone.Tout suffocant
Et blême, quand
Sonne l’heure,
Je me souviens
Des jours anciens
Et je pleure;Et je m’en vais
Au vent mauvais
Qui m’emporte
Deçà, delà,
Pareil à la
Feuille morte.Autumn Song
The long tears
Of Autumn’s
Violins
Wound my heart
With a monotonous
lethargy.All suffocating
And pale when
The hour strikes,
I remember
The old days
And I cry…And I am going away
On an ill wind
That carries me
Here, there,
Just like a
Dead leaf.Follow the link to hear Chanson d’Automne recited
A New Rosetta Stone!
Sunday, September 9th, 2007I found an interesting feature in Webster’s Online Dictionary at http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org . If you set it to “Non-English” and type in a word – it will give you that word in all of the languages it has for the word, with the definition. That’s pretty interesting to see.
For instance, the word “okay” exists in many languages. If you set the dictionary to “Non-English” and type that in, you can see all the languages for which they have information, that have the word “okay”. (Of course, “okay” is originally an English word, but it’s spread all around the world.)
Teaching Children Who Are Learning an Instrument about What Can Be Played on That Instrument
Wednesday, June 6th, 2007When I was in elementary band, way back when, I started on the clarinet. I was never truly happy with it and I always wanted to play the saxophone. I did end up switching to the sax within a couple of years of starting an instrument.
Now I’m older, and I’ve heard enough great music to know what the clarinet is capable of. I wish that my band teacher had devoted a lesson to teaching us about our particular instruments. If he had spent time playing Benny Goodman tunes and perhaps Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, I would have understood right away what beautiful music the clarinet was capable of – in both genres – Jazz and Classical music.
If a student is playing the trumpet, they should be exposed to the music of Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis and perhaps some trumpet concertos early on.
In band we played When the Saints Go Marching In. I found the arrangement to be boring. If someone had played one of Louis Armstrong’s renditions of the same piece, it would have inspired me. I would have seen that the slow version I was playing could lead to something more lively and jazzier as I gained more experience.
I have a feeling that many young children who take band in schools can study an instrument for years without ever really hearing it played by the masters. Of course, kids have to start with the simpler stuff, but they should be exposed to the masterpieces so they know the payoff if they stick with it.
Just some food for thought for band teachers.
I ended up very happy with the saxophone. Now as an adult, I’m considering taking up clarinet lessons when both of my children are in school full time. So I’ll be making a full circle!
-Lisa
Hold a Concert in Your House – Another Way to Make Music a Part of Your Family’s Life
Friday, May 11th, 2007Last Sunday evening I went to my friend Rae’s house, where she held a concert. It’s a tradition she started with her husband, Mike, a few years back. Every year, just before Mother’s Day, they invite their friends and family to gather together to play songs on their instruments for each other. The concert is in honor of both of Rae and Mike’s mothers who passed away.
Children and adults were invited to play.
I think this is a lovely idea. It’s a nice Mother’s Day tradition. It gives children and adults a chance to show off the hard work they’ve been doing throughout the year. It also bridges the gap between school and home – so children are playing the songs they learn on their instruments in a variety of settings.
I think of what Vince Bates talks about on his blog Musicing – about how learning music in school needs to be more a part of the child’s whole life. This approaches it from the other direction and says that the things the child is doing in school can be brought home and enjoyed by the student with his or her friends and family.
At the end of the concert, everyone was invited to join in together and play and sing, Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. This gave even the littlest kids, and anyone who didn’t play an instrument, a chance to be involved. I recorded it for you! It’s a bit cacophonous – but it was a lot of fun! Click the link below to hear it, and come join in singing!
MP3 of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
Here are some other posts about Mother’s Day, including some poems:
New Recordings of French Children’s Songs
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007We were recently fortunate enough to receive a selection of recordings of French kids songs, sung by a French music teacher, Tiphaine Woerth.
Here’s a wonderful recording Tiphaine did of Ainsi Font, followed by the lyrics and an English translation.
Ainsi font
(French)Ainsi font, font, font
Les petites marionnettes
Ainsi font font font
Trois petits tours
Et puis s’en vont
Elle reviendront
Les petites marionnettes
Elles reviendront
Quand les autres partiront.They Do This Way
(English)They do, do, do this way
The little puppets
They do, do, do this way
Three little turns
And then they go away
They will come back
The little puppets
They will come back
When the others go away.Many thanks to Tiphaine Woerth for the recording and Monique Palomares of Mama Lisa’s World en français for the English translation.
Come visit the Mama Lisa’s World France pages to hear more of Tiphaine’s recordings.
New Blog about Music Education called “Musicing”
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007Vince Bates recently started a blog about music education called Musicing. I like his thoughts on music. He believes music should be taught in schools to become a vital part of the student’s whole life.
Here’s what Vince wrote (it’s also an explanation of what “musicing” means):
“‘Musicing’, to me, means any and all human action related to music… Joyful play, I think, is integral to musicing…. people engage in musicing because it is personally fulfilling – because it might lead to increased happiness and fulfillment…. This blog will explore how music in school can become joyful and personally fulfilling musicing.”
I’m curious about what Vince has to say and will be reading his blog to hear his thoughts on music.
One Last Post about Pi
Saturday, March 17th, 2007Check out Jeremy, from my previous pi post, lip-sync-singing pi to the xth digit! (Did you get what I was trying to say there? It’ll all become clear when you watch the clip…)
I thought that was too funny to pass up! –Lisa
Check out the site Super Simple Songs to see some kids videos with Jeremy in them.
How Many Numbers Can You Recite of Pi?
Friday, March 16th, 2007I’m not ashamed to admit it, here’s what I can remember:
3.14… to infinity!
Well the other day, when I wrote about Pi Day, Devon over at Head, Shoulders, Knees and all that, commented about a video we could watch of one of his colleagues reciting all the numbers listed below in pi. (He made one error in the middle – but he corrected himself. I’m jealous!)
3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375
10582097494459230781640628620899862803482534211706
79821480865132823066470938446095505822317253594081
28481117450284102701938521105559644622948954930381
96442881097566593344612847564823378678316527120190
91456485669234603486104543266482133936072602491412
7372458700660631You’ve gotta watch this video of Jeremy-sensei performing this mind boggling task. It’s great!
Eat a Piece of Pie for Pi Day
Monday, March 12th, 2007Pi (π) Day is celebrated on March 14th in the US. It’s mainly celebrated by students, teachers and professors, lovers of math, and mathematicians.
In case you forgot… What is Pi Again?
Pi (π) is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. To break it down into a simple formula:
π = circumference of a circle/its diameter
The circumference is the distance around the circle. The diameter is the distance from one side of the circle to the other, if you drew a line that passes through the center of the circle.
Pi is particularly useful when you’re trying to work out the area of a circle or an arc.
One important thing about pi is that it’s always the same no matter how big or how little the circle is. This makes sense – because a circle is always a circle – no matter how big or small it is – the ratio of its circumference to its diameter is always the same – it’s pi!
Pi = 3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419…
The … means that the number goes on an infinite amount.
The amazing thing about pi is that it’s an irrational number. Yet it’s still useful in our day to day life. Like if we wanted to figure out the area of a circular rug, you’d need to use pi. Go figure!
Why is Pi Celebrated on this Day?
March 14th is Pi Day in the US. That’s because in the US, you write March 14th as 3/14. So if you figure…
Pi = 3.141592653589793238462643383279502…
The 3.14 is where you get the 3/14 for March 14th. (To make this date even more propitious, Albert Einstein was born on March 14th in 1879.)
Of course, you’re talking about mathematicians, so figuring out what time to celebrate Pi Day isn’t simple.
Most people would say the correct time to celebrate it is at 1:59, since those are the numbers in pi that come after 3.14. There’s a debate about whether it should be am or pm. I assume college students would chose to celebrate Pi Day at 1:59 am for its accuracy (plus they can stay up to have a party in the middle of the night). Presumably most high school and middle school kids would be more likely to celebrate Pi Day at 1:59 pm. Though I must warn you that some people celebrate it at 3:14!
In Europe and other parts of the world, Pi Day is celebrated on January 3 at 4:15. That’s because they would write the date putting the number for the day first (3) and then the number for the month (1). So they’d write the date as 3/1 then add the time 4:15 and you get some of the numbers in pi: 3.1415…
Why is Pi Called Pi?
π is the Greek letter for P. π is also the first letter of the Greek word for periphery (or circumference).
How Can You Celebrate Pi?
Here are some ideas:
-Eat pizza pie on pi day.
-Make a pie with a pi sign on it to eat.
-Have a contest to see who can remember the most digits in the number pi. Perhaps the winner can win a pineapple.
-Have a pie throwing contest!
-Sing Pi Day Carols.
-Prove that π = 3.14…Idea for Teaching Pi or How to Show that π = 3.14159…
I think this is a wonderful hands-on experiment to help children understand why π = 3.1415… The gist of this experiment is to take different sized jar caps and have the children measure them. 1st they will cut a piece of string to get a measurement for the circumference. Then they will cut another piece of string to get a measurement for the diameter. Then they measure each string. Then they work out how many “diameter” strings they will need to get a measurement for the length of the “circumference” string. The answer should be in decimals. The class should take all of its data and average it out. The answer should be close to pi.
For full instructions of this experiment go to What is Pi? A “Cool” Lesson
There’s also a cool one-page pi poster you can print out for your child or students.
Many thanks to Calvin for pointing out this holiday to me!
Happy Pi Day to You All!
Lisa
National Foreign Language Week
Thursday, March 8th, 2007In the United States, National Foreign Language Week is being celebrated this week. It’s normally held the first week of March each year.
National Foreign Language Week was started 50 years ago, in 1957, by President Eisenhower to encourage Americans to learn a second language, thereby improving our communication with (and hopefully understanding of) the rest of the world.
National Foreign Language Week is mainly celebrated in schools around the country.
In my son’s middle school, each day they’re focusing on a different language. The morning announcements are said in that day’s language. The students are encouraged to wear colors from that country’s flag. So if the language is French and the country is France – they’re supposed to wear the colors of the French flag – red, white and blue.
Some other good ideas I’ve seen are:
-Decorate the halls with flags from around the wall.
-Label the names of the classes in different languages.
-At the entrance of the school write “hello” or “greetings” in many different languages.
-Ask school librarians to highlight books about different cultures.Does anyone know of other ideas to promote cultural awareness and an interest in language learning in schools? We’d love to hear about any other ideas. Please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
ABC Phonics Animation
Tuesday, February 13th, 2007The ABC Phonics Parade is my first foray into the world of animation!
We recorded Ms. Lupton’s kindergarten class singing an ABC Phonics Song. Ms. Lupton made up the song herself, to teach the children the sounds of each letter of the alphabet. The kids then drew pictures to go with each letter.
When you click on a letter in the animation, you can hear the children singing about that letter’s sound. When you put the mouse over the letter, you can see a little animation of that letter. When the letter’s simply moving across the screen, you get to see the child’s drawing as it is. That seemed important to me. To let the child’s work stand out.
So here’s the ABC Phonics Parade. I hope you enjoy it!
Press the play button to start. It may take a few moments to begin, particularly if you have a slow internet connection. (You may need a new version of the Flash player to view this video, in which case you should see a link to install it.)
Many thanks to Ms. Lupton and her Kindergarten class of 2007 for creating these fantastic drawings and for singing for us!
-Mama Lisa
100 Day Celebration
Monday, February 12th, 2007Last week I joined my daughter’s kindergarten class for their 100th Day of School Celebration.
The teacher uses the 100 Day Celebration as an opportunity to teach the class about the concept of 100. Before the big day, the children learn to count to 100 by ones, fives and tens.
The week before the celebration, each child makes a project at home out of 100 items. They’re told to include the number 100 somewhere in their project. My daughter made the number 100 out of 100 Legos. When my son was in kindergarten, he glued 100 pennies onto a board with an equal sign and a dollar, meaning 100 pennies equals one dollar.
When my son was in kindergarten, on the morning of the 100th day of school, the principal counted the children as they entered the school. The 100th child to enter received a prize.
For my daughter’s celebration, the teacher made placemats with the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, & 100 on it. The kids counted 10 each of a different snack on each number. That is, ten pretzels were placed on ‘10′, ten M&M’s were placed on ‘20′, ten little marshmallows were placed on ‘30′, etc. At the end, each child had counted 100 snacks.
Here’s what the mat looked like…
Feel free to share any 100 day activities you know about in the comments below!
-Lisa
UPDATE: You can see a photo of my daughter’s 100 Day Project plus more 100 Day Celebration Ideas in a later post. Just click the link to get there!
Free Online Language Dictionaries
Friday, December 22nd, 2006While I have this link at hand, I’d like to recommend www.freedict.com. It’s a site devoted to free online language dictionaries. You can translate between English and the following languages:
Afrikaans
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Japanese
Latin
Norwegian
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swahili
SwedishI find that it can usually succeed at translating the words I need.
Feel free to recommend other language dictionaries that you like in the comments below.
-Lisa
Create Your Own Memory Game for your Kids or Students
Saturday, December 9th, 2006Last week my daughter and I had to create a memory game for her homework using blank index cards.
Memory games usually have cards that have images on them. There will be two cards with the same image – so that each image comes in pairs. All of the cards are placed face down, mixed up and put into a grid pattern. You then take turns going. On each player’s turn, you turn over two cards so they’re facing up. If those two cards are a match you take them off the board, and put them in a pile in front of you. If you get a match you go again. If you don’t get a match, it’s the other players turn. You keep taking turns until all the matches are gone. Whoever has the most matches at the end wins.
The game can be played with words as well as pictures. My daughter’s homework assignment was to use blank index cards to make a sight word memory game. The object, of course, was to help her learn some sight words, by playing the game. The words were: a, go, I, love, no, the & you. I had to write each word on two different index cards, so they made matches.
After I prepared it, we played the game. We kept it home and played throughout the week. At the end of the week we sent it into school – so the kids could play there. My daughter can now read all of those words!
I think this is a great idea. It makes a game out of learning. You could use this idea for teaching many different concepts. It could be colors. It could be uppercase letters or lowercase letters. It could be used to teach other words. The list is endless.
My only problem is that my daughter has an excellent visual memory. So when I play memory games with her that have a lot of cards, the competition’s tough, and I often lose! Maybe these memory games are good for adults also – to help us exercise our failing memories!
Great Link for Language Learning
Monday, December 4th, 2006If you’re trying to learn a new language, I’d recommend checking out LanguageGuide.org.
Users visit different theme related pages (i.e. about insects, the family, the farm). Each page has images related to the theme. You place your cursor over the images and hear their names pronounced and see them spelled out in the language you choose.
Because it’s visually based, these pages can be used by anyone in the world, regardless of your native language.
Here are the languages they have:
English (English)
Italian (Italiano)
Arabic (عربي;)
Spanish (Español)
Portuguese (Português)
Mandarin Chinese (普通话)
French (Français)
Russian (Русский)
Japanese (日本語 Nihongo)
German (Deutsch)
Hebrew (עברית)So if you’re interested in learning any of these languages, or improving your skills, check it out!
-Lisa
Cold Turkey Week – Can Your Kids Go for a Week Without a TV?
Monday, November 13th, 2006Every year during the week before Thanksgiving, our town library holds Cold Turkey Week.
During Cold Turkey Week, our kids are challenged to give up the tube (TV). In fact, they’re supposed to give up everything with a screen: the TV, computers, Gameboys, etc.
Cold Turkey Week is supported by the school district. They encourage the librarians to come into the schools to talk about the program and psych up the kids to do it.
The kids are given a contract to sign – it’s signed by the child and by one of his/her parents each day of Cold Turkey Week – to acknowledge that the child did not watch TV at all.
Each child is also given a packet of things to do during Cold Turkey Week: mazes, coloring pages, etc. The library has little events going on. Family time and reading are also encouraged. As a final prize, all the kids who successfully finish the week without watching TV get to attend a special show put on at the library.
I think this is a wonderful idea to show kids that there are other things to do besides electronically based activities. They can even give up computers! The Internet is an incredibly wonderful thing, but it’s good to know we can indeed live without it from time to time!
-Lisa
Rainbow Writing, The Letter “A” and the Excitement Mark!
Friday, October 13th, 2006It’s exciting to watch my 5 year old daughter pick up early reading and writing skills in Kindergarten.
Right now they’re focusing on the letter “A”. How you write it. What it sounds like. What words begin with “A”.
One of the interesting writing exercises they do is called Rainbow Writing. To do Rainbow Writing, the child will trace over a letter that the teacher wrote in marker beforehand, or that’s on a ditto. The kid will trace over the letter 5 different times, using 5 different colored crayons. It gives the letter a colorful rainbow effect, thus making the repetition less tedious.
My daughter’s homework this week was to do Rainbow writing over a capital and lowercase letter A that the teacher wrote in a notebook for her. (Below is my daughter’s homework from last night – I enhanced the colors on the computer so you could see what I mean.)
The other homework my daughter had this week was called the Letter Aa Mystery Bag. She had to find something that begins with the letter A. Then she had to put it in a brown paper bag labeled with an A. Then she had to come up with 3 clues to help the class guess what was in the bag. I wrote the 3 clues down for her and she put the list of clues in the bag. Today the class will figure out together what’s in the bag. (She put a toy ant in her bag. Yuck!)
I thought that was a smart game to make learning fun.
Lastly, my daughter told me yesterday about how she learned about the exciting mark and with her hand in the air she drew an exclamation point! I thought that was a very clever way to explain an exclamation point to a young kid, calling it an exciting or excitement mark!
I’m excited to see what she learns next!
________
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