"You got to MOVE it, MOVE it!"

Last week in preschool was "percussion week" on our month long journey through the instrument families. Each instrument family has "rules," like criteria you have to meet to belong to the club. To be in the brass family you have to be 1) made of metal, 2) have 3 buttons, and 3) you have to go "ppppppppp" to play it (they love to do this - imagine that). To be in the string family you have to 1) have strings, and 2) pluck or bow the strings to play them. Sometimes the families will feel sorry for certain instruments and allow them into the club even though they break the rules, but overall the rules stand firm.

So I started each class this week explaining the rules of the percussion family, which only had one rule - you have to hit it or shake it. Since this was such an easy rule, I went ahead and asked them what kinds of instruments would be percussion instruments. In most classes, the kids went right for the instruments that we've already talked about in class, such as a drum, triangle, xylophone, maracas, etc. Then I would lead them to figuring out that we can use pretty much anything as a percussion instrument, like the floor or a garbage can or something fun.

Remember my cute class from the penguin blog? Well, here they are making blog news again. When I asked them what kind of things could be percussion instruments, right away they went for non conventional items. In fact, the first answer I got was:

"WE can be percussion instruments, because we can hit us AND we can SHAKE it!"

It's Mini!

If you read my "Jack In the Box" post from a few months ago, then you know how much I hate their food. They must be throwing all their money into their ad campaign, though, because this commercial is a riot! And since all my Illinois friends probably haven't seen it (consider yourselves blessed to not have JITB's in your area), here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Ad tactics

I have recently decided to give vegetarianism a try again. But not the way I did it last time where I only excluded actual meat, and instead lived on pasta and cheese and sugar. No, no. I'm actually excluding ALL animal product from my diet and replacing milk and hamburger with rice milk and tofu. I don't know how long it will last, but for the time being I'm enjoying trying new foods and I'm losing a little weight, so right on.

I was a little nervous about doing it at first because I thought that Josh would just kind of roll his eyes and think the whole idea was just another silly phase, but he's been very supportive. In fact, last night at the grocery store he even decided to try trading in his regular chocolate milk for soy chocolate milk (which he says is pretty good!). Since I had gotten rice milk last time I didn't pay attention to what was on the soy milk carton until now:



I suppose that's one way to boost sales.

"Well, the carton says to 'buy often,' so I guess I better go out and get some more."

Time keeps on slippin' (slippin', slippin')

Throughout the month of March in preschool we learned about Classical Music, Marching Music, Big Band Music, and last week it was Rock & Roll Music. In preparing for this lesson, it occurred to me that some of these kids may have never seen a record before (*gasp!*). So I got out the record player and a record and made this the introduction to our "sock hop" (they all wore crazy socks and danced to 50's and 60's dances for a half-hour. Cute.).

First I asked them what those big black circles were that I had taped to my cabinets:

"Disks!"
"CD's!"
"Wheels!"

Then I told them what they were and asked if anyone had seen them before. And, if they had seen them, do you know what the top answer was? "At my granny's house!" Now, I don't doubt that Granny has a record player, but gollllyyyy...how old am I? All of my treasured childhood recordings were on 33 1/2's.

Then I opened up the record player and showed them the needle and the turn table. Awestruck and curious, they patiently watched me unsheathe the record from it's sleeve.

"Whoaaaaaaa," they chorused.
"Is that a real one?" one child asked.

"Yes, that's a real one," I responded.

"Can I touch it?" another one asked, wide-eyed.

"No," I replied. "You can't touch it because if it gets finger oils on it, it won't play anymore."

"Ooooohhhhh."


Yeah, I don't wish for the record player to make a comeback or anything, but when you think about it, wasn't it cool to be a part of the time period when the record was a thing? And we got to experience that as an actual part of our lives, not just as an antique we saw one day in music class. I think, neato.

Just in case you forget...

I went on a little road trip yesterday to go visit an organ dealer, as our church is considering a new organ for the sanctuary. Before we left, I asked to use the restroom, as we had about an hour's drive ahead of us. I couldn't resist a quick picture of the little sign on their bathroom door:



Yeah, I'm always forgetting to shut the door when I have to pee in public restrooms. Thank goodness for the sign!

BFF (Beethoven's Favorite Foods)

This month in music we're studying styles of music. Last week was classical music week, and since we have been using "Ode to Joy" to illustrate a LOT of musical concepts lately, I decided that if I was going to teach them about one classical composer it would be Beethoven. So to make learning about Beethoven a little bit more fun, I made a little power point presentation with pictures and sound effects so that my "lecture" would sound more like a story. The power point kept the kids' interest pretty well (largely because they like to do things with the lights off), especially when we got to the part about Beethoven's favorite foods.

I started by asking them "What do you think Mr. Beethoven's favorite foods are? (they throw out a couple of guesses). You think so? Let's see..."

Then I hit the space bar on the keyboard and the following picture slides up from the bottom accompanied with the sound of a crowd of people saying "mmmmmmmmmm!":


They excitedly yell "Macaroni and Cheese!!!!! ('That's my FAVORITE!' 'That's my favorite TOO!' 'ME too!')

Then the next picture:

"mmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

"Coffee!!!!!" they all yell. No one claims this as their favorite.

Picture number 3:

"mmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

"FISH!!!!!"

Then the last picture, egg and bread soup, which I accompanied with the sound of a man disgustedly saying "eeeewwwww!":


This confused them. They all studied the screen for several seconds, their little faces scrunched in thought. Then one brave boy, serious and concerned, broke the silence.

"Throw up."

John Deere Buck

There is a 3-year-old boy (we'll call him Peter) at preschool who talks all the time about his John Deere Buck. I didn't even know John Deere made something called a Buck, but here it is:

What's so funny about this is not the fact that he's a little talker. And it's not even what he says that cracks me up, but how he says it. And the only way for you all to understand what I mean was to somehow have a recording of it. *angels singing* "And God said, 'let there be an Iphone with a recording app.' And it was so." :) So I just happened to ask if he rode his tractor over the weekend, and here is our conversation: (I have included a transcript, as it's funnier when you actually know what he's saying.)

Hold the ctrl key and click here to listen. (It'll come up in a new tab so you can read and listen at the same time. You might have to click on the second tab to get it to start, then click on the first tab to read.)

Peter: I actually drove my John Deere Buck at my Grama and Grampa's. There's kinda rocks near my Gram...Grampa has a little shed that's beside a little playground, and I drove my Buck past it on fast speed on the...on fast speed on the rocks. There's kinda rocks.

Me: Did you drive it by yourself or did somebody help you drive it?

Peter: I just have to put it on just the gas pedal and I just...

Me: You just go?

Peter: Yeah. Well, it's kinda electric.

Me: 'Lectric? 'Lectric John Deere? It doesn't take any gas?

Peter: Naw. Just the gas pedal.

Me: Just the gas pedal.

Peter: Yeah, the gas pedal. It's not really real...It really does go pretty fast on its fast speed.

Me: Yeah?

Peter: Yeah. Well, my tractor actually needs...my tractor needs to be charged.

Me: Yeah? It's out of battery?

Peter: (nods)

Me: Yeah.

Peter: Yeah, so that's a fast one, too. Grampa has a little four-wheeler. It only goes on slow speed.

Me: What, the tractor or your John Deere Buck?

Peter: Um, well, my John Deere Buck goes slow speed, and back up, and fast, and then...well...Grampa's (not sure what he said here) Buck is kinda...just goes pretty slow. Just on slow.

Me: It's just a slow one? You can't go real real fast with that one?

Peter: Naw.