Music and Movement

Ella Fitzgerald once said, "The only thing better than singing is more singing". We are about to be doing a lot more singing over at the GPPSS Child Development and Preschool Program!

Back in May, our program was awarded a grant from the Grosse Pointe Foundation for Public Education for the creation of Music and Movement Resource Kits. We have completed the process of ordering materials and assembling the kits! Each of the four kits consists of a classroom set of instruments, various dancing scarves, a puppet, and a large group material- such as a canopy or octa-band. Two of the kits contain instruments that are safe for infants and toddlers. In addition, we were able to create a lending library with books related to music, instruments and music concepts. These books will be available for teachers to check out and use in their classrooms as well. 

This week, our staff went through a training session to test out the new materials, share ideas and review information about the importance of music in the earliest years. Our teachers are now ready and equipped to begin using the Resource Kits in their classrooms. 

We are grateful that the Grosse Pointe Foundation for Public Education made this vision a reality for us. We are excited that everyone in our program, birth through age five, will be able to participate in music experiences!

A group of teachers test out the XL Stretchy Band

Practicing with an octa-band for large group movement

Nutty Science

Things got a little nutty around here last week when we were visited by Professor K- the Nutty Scientist!! Professor K visited our Preschool and Pre-K classrooms to show us just how awesome science can be!

Air molecules were the topic of our exploration. The children saw demonstrations of how air molecules can cause objects to float, fly and move! They predicted what they thought might happen, how they thought it might happen, and even got to participate in a few of the experiments. We even learned about a cool scientist named Bernoulli, who inspired one of Professor K's inventions. 

We hope to continue our excitement for science and try some experiments of our own!