Parents’ Picks 2009 Nominee

Kindermusik with Lori Burkhardt has been nominated for Best Music Class in Nickelodeon’s Parents’ Picks Awards!  I need your help to win! You can vote (click the logo) for my Studio once a day, every day, from now until July 15. Thanks for your support!

Kindermusik with Lori Burkhardt NOMINATED FOR NICKELODEON’S PARENTSCONNECT PARENTS’ PICKS AWARD FOR Best Music Class

Nationwide Online Poll Allows Parents to Nominate Favorite Family Resources through July 15

WHAT: Nickelodeon’s ParentsConnect, the online resource for parenting advice and community, is allowing parents to pick the best of their local communities with its second annual Parents’ Picks Awards.  Kindermusik with Lori Burkhardt was of St Louis nominees for Best Music Class. Users can vote online for nominees until July 15, and ParentsConnect will announce the winners online on Aug. 15. The 2009 award winners will be featured on ParentsConnect throughout the year.

HOW TO VOTE: The Parents’ Picks Awards will identify winners in 52 major U.S. cities. Categories include: best museum for families; best toy store; best playground/park; and more. Users can vote for nominees online at www.parentsconnect.com/parentspicks until July 15 to help determine the “top picks” in their city.

Parents’ Picks businesses are nominated based on recommendations from Nickelodeon’s local city editors that live and work in the cities they cover, in conjunction with the sites’ user feedback. User votes ultimately determine the winning venues in 30 different categories.

PARENTSCONNECT BACKGROUND: Featuring the tagline “We’re not perfect, we’re parents,” Nickelodeon’s ParentsConnect is the online resource providing parenting advice and community, celebrating the reality of parenthood and making parents’ lives easier. Geared towards parents with kids of all ages, from babies to teens, the site offers unique features like personalized profiles that help parents connect with each other; advice from top-tier parenting experts; a digital multi-media scrapbook; seasonal crafts, recipes and activities; a weekly meal-planner; a weekly newsletter focusing on the behavior and development of your child; and guest celebrity editorials. Each age-related section on the site provides users with daily content to help them through both large and small parenting challenges.

Enroll NOW for Fall 2009

Enroll NOW for Fall 2009 Kindermusik

www.KMwithLori.com

Family Time/Movin’ & Groovin’ ~ newborns to 7 years (in 1st grade)
Movin’ & Groovin’ is a romping, rolling, stretching good time for the whole family. This unit will explore lots of different ways to move – high and low, fast and slow, zigzag, curvy and more. Family members will chug around the classroom like trains, clip-clop like horses and roll over like puppy dogs. They’ll hear a story about playing tag together in Can You Catch Me? and read about a jungle hokey-pokey in Put Your Left Paw In. The Home Materials include: two CDs with music from class; Sing, Play & Grow! a family guide with musical fun, activities and information about child development, as well as fun facts about the songs enjoyed in class; Jellybean band puppets-Rascal the monkey (hand puppet and finger puppet); two monkey den-den drums; two Jellybean Band books with activity pages, comic strips about the band and stories-Can You Catch Me? and Put Your Left Paw In.
Village/Feathers & Do-Si-Do ~ newborns to 18 months
Feathers introduces Baby and Parent/Caregiver to a delightful range of songs, movement activities, object play and vocal play relating to our feathered friends. The Australian Kookaburra, the African Ostrich and many more birds from across the world are featured in songs, dances, and poems. Both jazz and classical selections, a Yiddish folk song, a Muskogean melody, and Mother Goose rhymes set to music are just a few of the colorful and exciting pieces introduced in this curriculum. The board book feathers drawings of many birds.  A Chime Ball is the featured home instrument.
Do-Si-Do stimulates a wonderfully unique experience of rhythm and movement for Baby and Parent/Caregiver. Movement highlights include a Virginia Reel, a combination Tango, Cha-Cha! and a “move-to-it” poem, which is also featured in the board book. Other activities range from chime ball play to instrument exploration and more. Music selections draw from many traditions, including African American, Mexican, Romantic, Scottish, South African and Southeast Asian. An egg shaker is the featured home instrument along with a blue scarf.

Our Time/Wiggles & Giggles ~ 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years
This unit is all about movement (wiggles!) and fun, funny words and sounds and emotion (giggles!). The songs are about humor, laughter, silly sounds and words and movement. Everyday activities like bath time are highlighted in the delightful book Pete and PJ. Watch Me! is a movement literature book featuring lots of animal movement. Zig-Zag blocks are the featured instrument.

Imagine That/See What I Saw ~ 3 1/2 to 5 years (not in Kindergarten)
In this unit, your child will enjoy the many wonders of a trip to Grasshopper Park. The music represents a variety of different cultures with songs from Ghana,Latin America, Greece and France. You will find some favorites including “Ha Ha This-a-Way,” “Jim Along Josie,” “Mr. Sun,” “A Tisket, A Tasket,” “Shoo-Fly” and “Allee Galloo.” There are also many new, original compositions like the chant “Everything is Just Fine.” The two literature books are The Ant Picnic Feast and Can You Find Me? The featured instruments are a slide whistle and a pair of Lummi (ridged) sticks.

Young Child/Semester 1 ~ 5-6 years (in Kindergarten)
Semester 1 focuses on beat versus no beat, percussion and brass instruments, melodicdirection, exploring the staff and notation. The glockenspiel, a pre-keyboard instrument, is introduced, as are the themes “Music Is Everywhere,” “Meet the Mallets” and “Discovering Melody and Mozart.” NOTE: Children tend to do best in Young Child 1 if they are in Kindergarten.

Young Child/Semester 3 ~ 6-7 years (in 1st grade)
Semester 3 focuses on stringed instruments with the introduction to their very own dulcimers. Other musical concepts taught include call and response, improvisation, “Music of Appalachia,” “Music of the Sea” and “Native American Music.” Folk music & instruments, jazz, gospel, American Indian, dance – ballet & jazz & tap and Nutcracker are also introduced.  Notes on the staff, note values and glockenspiel are continued. NOTE: New students are accepted into Young Child 3 without having taken Young Child 1 and/or Young Child 2. There is a lot of built in review in Young Child 3 for the benefit of new students, as well as returning.

How Classes are Canceled Due to Weather (or Illness)

Please note…if classes are canceled due to weather (or illness) for Kindermusik with Lori Burkhardt, I will email.  Please RESPOND to this email to reduce the number of phone calls I may have to make.  If the email is not responded to, I will call at least an hour before your class time.  Please check your email & messages at your home phone.  And always feel free to email or call me.

More about canceled classes.

You can also check my site: www.KMwithLori.com for cancellations.

I had a parent comment they saw my listing on the news. However, ‘Kindermusik Academy’ is NOT my listing, it is another educator in the area. If I were to list it on the news, it would be “Kindermusik Lori Burkhardt.”

Happy Spring/Winter!

Kindermusik Maestro 2009, 3rd Year in a Row!

What a surprise to find this in my inbox (and my mail) from Kindermusik International:

Congratulations! You have earned the honor of Kindermusik Maestro Producer, Mezzanine Level (top 5% of educators). You are one of 190 educators to reach this honor (from over 5000 educators world-wide).

The Maestro Program, started in 2000 by Kindermusik International, recognizes licensed Kindermusik educators who master one of three levels in early childhood development: program growth, outstanding community service and teaching excellence.

Needless to say, I was happily surprised!

This means that through the support of all of my families attending Kindermusik with Lori Burkhardt, my Studio is in the top 5% of all Kindermusik programs internationally for 2009-2010

Thank you, families, for helping with this honor. It would not be possible without you.

Register NOW for Kindermusik Summer 2009

Click PICTURES/LOGOS for Registration Information.
Offered in Webster Groves (63119) & University City (63130) MO
and in Columbia IL
www.KMwithLori.com KMwithLori@gmail.com

Inspire your child’s love of learning in only five lessons. In a Kindermusik summer session: blow bubbles, play games, pretend, sing, play instruments, dance with scarves and streamers and ribbons. All these summer session activities – the music, the stories, and craft ideas to create at home – are designed to nurture your child’s natural curiosity, one that eventually draws him toward learning new words, new numbers, and new big ideas. Newborns to 7 years with caregiver participating in the entire class.

Newborns to 7 years (in 1st grade Fall 09)  Family class (caregivers involved the entire class)

Five 50 minute classes Tuition $90 + required Home Materials $40 = TOTAL $130

$65 Tuition for siblings (speak to Lori about materials)

Home CD, plush bunny puppet, ladybug jingle, snail knock-knock, five picture folders featuring the animals, songs, music and ideas for at home all in a red Kindermusik carry bag

Give your child something to talk about—or sing about—in their own backyard.

Through music and movement activities created just for your child,

we’ll learn all about the animals you see everyday:

woodpeckers, caterpillars, ladybugs, flowers, rabbits and so much more.

Through music, creative movement, puppet play, instrument exploration, storytelling and singing, your child will uncover the wonder of these creatures living in your own backyard.

One BIG Rubik’s Cube

In High School, my fastest time to solve a regular cube was was 2 minutes.  I’d LOVE to try this HUGE one!

Noticing: Conscious Discipline® – Dr Becky Bailey

I have eliminated ‘good job’ from my vocabulary several years ago. I tend to notice what kids are doing now more, too, after hearing Becky speak at two different events.  This ‘noticing’ does work!  Sounds so much better then ‘good job.’

Noticing: Conscious Discipline® – Dr Becky Bailey

Why Arts Education is Crucial…

Why Arts Education Is Crucial, and Who’s Doing It Best

Involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork.

Leslie Lemke – Autistic Savant

I was watching “Rainman” this past w/e on my local PBS station, and thought of Leslie…autistic savant…plays piano and sings.  Leslie’s story HERE.

I first learned of Leslie in college in the spring of 1987 when I took an Intro to Music Therapy class.  I was VERY moved by this man, and I am still amazed.

According to IMDB.com, Dustin Hoffman was originally to play the part of Charlie Babbit in “Rainman” (Tom Cruise’s character), but after being moved to tears seeing a “savant” named Leslie Lemke (who is blind, retarded, and has cerebral palsy) play full concertos on the piano by ear, he decided to play the part of Raymond instead.

Hoffman was also inspired by Kim Peek.

Just a reminder of how powerful music can be.

From 1981….“That’s Incredible.”   Interview w/May and Leslie.    More recent videos HERE.

John Coltrane (Sax) – Music on Paper Comes to Life

John Coltrane (Sax) – Music on Paper Comes to Life “Giant Steps”

Thanks to my High School friend, Paul, for sending this to me.