Yes, it took a little bit for me to get this message up! Being gone every weekend catches up with you after a while. Glorieta, was beautiful this year. My husband went with me, and we actually had an uninterrupted conversation. ;-) It was really fun to be there, but it's always great to get back home.
People seem to love the change of Music Time. We saw a premiere of Joseph - From the pit to the Palace, written by Gail and Jimmy Getzen. It was very good! The young man who played the flour sifter was my favorite. :-) If you were there you know what I'm talking about.
The two classes that received the most comments were Extremely Useful Instruments and Extreme Worship. In Extremely Useful Intstruments we pulled songs from the new curriculum and demonstrated new ideas in using instruments with the songs. The Melody Bells were a hit! We used them with the song "Born in Bethlehem." The melody only contains four notes, therefore making it very easy to direct the children.
Don't worry so much about the melody being exactly in tempo, but work toward getting the notes played close enough together that the melody is recognizable. Ask the children to sing a phrase, then direct them to play their bells to repeat what they just sang. Anytime the children seem to struggle when repeating this activity, go back to having the children echo on the bells what they sing. Remember it's ok to take a phrase at a time. :-)
The Melody Bells can be found at www.rhythmband.com, item number RB107. These wonderful instruments can be played as handbells or left sitting on the table and tapped on the handle like a desk bell. The colors of these bells and boomwackers are the same, so any colored coded cards you use for boomwackers will work for the melody bells as well.
In Extreme Worship we talked about Family Worship Time, a time for children and their parents. We participated in a Family Worship Time and shared a wide variety of resources for songs to use during this time. Participants discovered that Family Worship Time, should they feel led to try it, will look different at their church than what they experienced in class. It has to adapt to the body where it is being implemented. If you are are ever in a town where we will be, I hope you will stop by and allow us to share with you some of the fun of Family Worship Time.
For now, I'm off to remember what happened in Jefferson City, MO.
Keep singing,
Darlene :-)
