The Music Man Comes to Visit!

Last week, students in our class were treated to a very memorable experience. Tinh's father Scott, also know as the Music Man in our class, shared with students his passion for music, creativity and fun. He explained to students that music is about rhythm, and rhythm is about patterns. We have been learning a great deal about patterns in math, but it's always helpful to see how patterns are everywhere. We even spent some time writing new verses to the popular standard, 'Down By the Bay', in which students were challenged to find patterns in language through rhyming words, also called phonograms.

Scott teaching students about the importance of patterns in music

Students just had to dance when the Music Man pulled out his electric guitar!

We have continued with this work and will be exploring rhyming through poems for the next couple of weeks. Students will learn about some common word families and will start creating their own dictionaries of words they are learning. It is time to expand our vocabulary and our minds!

Please take the time to encourage your child to find rhyming words at the dinner table, before going to sleep, or on your way to school. These practices help growing minds to put letters together into recognizable chunks, something research has shown to help new readers progress more quickly.