15 June 2020
We hope you are all keeping well and starting to wind down towards your summer break. This week our activities are all based around travel and transport with songs and activities to keep you busy and active! Don't forget to check with an adult before you go online.
You also have the chance to show us your creativity by making up your own actions and words to the songs and rhymes. Send us in a video of yourself to email@example.com and you might even win a little prize!
Have fun and we will catch up with you all again next week.
Junior & Senior Infants
Here is a fun counting song with actions that you will have no problem singing and clapping along to. If you have a younger brother or sister, sing the song with them to help with their counting too!
Our friends in NYCOS have a fun song about a train in this video, called Clickety Clack. You will need 2 sticks or pencils to tap along with the actions.
1st & 2nd Class
You may already know this song, all about a sailor who went to sea. We are sharing a clapping game in the video below so you will need a partner for this. Once you know the song and the actions, try it faster and faster!
Make up your own actions for this song and send us in a video of your creation! We would love to see what you come up with.
A Sailor Went to Sea
Get up and move with Old Brass Wagon! This video will teach you the song and some actions, but you can make up your own actions too - the sillier the better!
You can also challenge yourself and your family by using your thinking voice!
Old Brass Wagon
3rd & 4th Class
Here is another great video from our friends in NYCOS. This week's challenge includes body percussion.
See if you can keep up and have a go at making up your own body percussion.
This is also a fun song to sing while skipping!
Rob's Kitchen Music
This week Rob has a funny marching chant to get us all moving! Get your costumes on and listen carefully to the rhyme, and keep an eye on his feet!
Rob's Kitchen Music
5th & 6th Class
George Gershwin (1898-1937)
Born in Brooklyn in 1898 to immigrant parents, George Gershwin began learning piano at 12 and developed such skill that he quit school at 15 to work full time as a ‘song-plugger’
(a musician who demonstrated new songs to music publishers, in the hope that they would buy the songs and release them to the public, performed by a famous star).
One of his earliest compositions, “Swanee” became a massive hit in 1919 when recorded by the famous singer Al Jolson and Gershwin quickly became one of the most sought after songwriters of the 1920s and 1930s.
Throughout his life however, Gershwin struggled with his position within the musical world and despite enormous fame and wealth he dreamed of being taken seriously as a ‘classical composer’.
An American in Paris from 1928 is one of his ‘serious’ pieces and describes a journey through Paris. Have a look at this video of a performance by the LA Philharmonic.
Gershwin was so desperate to be seen as an orchestral composer that he travelled to Paris to take lessons with the great composer Maurice Ravel. The two men became friends but Ravel stated that he could not teach Gershwin – he thought him too accomplished already. Whilst in Paris, Gershwin was inspired to write a short piece as a ‘thank you note’ to his hosts and so this piece was born.
Gershwin said: “My purpose is to portray the impression of an American visitor in Paris as he strolls about the city and listens to the various street noises and absorbs the French atmosphere.”
The piece is a tone poem (which means it tells a story) and features a recurring ‘walking’ theme complete with the sound of French taxi cab horns. Towards the middle of the piece a second famous theme emerges: this one is said to represent Gershwin’s feelings of homesickness and longing for his home in New York City.
This piece inspired a whole musical film, also called An American in Paris, made in 1951 and starring Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron, which won 6 Oscars. The music for the rest of the film was also by Gershwin, and includes the famous song “I Got Rhythm”, with words written by his brother Ira. The climax of the film is a 17-minute dance sequence set to this An American in Paris piece of music, which cost half a million dollars to shoot – an enormous sum in those days, and about 5 million dollars in today’s money!
Have a listen to the piece by watching the video clip below.
The opening section describes the composer walking through the streets of Paris. Can you imagine what he might have seen? Does the music help you picture different sights and sounds in your mind?
The slow section represents the composers feelings of homesickness. Can you imagine how he must have felt in a strange city, with lots of strange and different sounds?
An American in Paris
Some of you may already know this song, here is a fun challenge from our friends in NYCOS. You will need 2 small balls or beanbags that you can throw and pass.
Why not try it with a partner and pass a ball on the words "Get rid of..." or come up with your own version of the game. Don't forget to share it with us by sending us a video to firstname.lastname@example.org
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