- audio player
- blues recording
- blues
- jazz
- music
- sound
- volume
MA Standards:
Speaking and Listening: SL.PK.MA.2 Recall information for short periods of time and retell, act out, or represent information from a text read aloud, a recording, or a video (e.g., watch a video about birds and their habitats and make drawings or constructions of birds and their nests).
Head Start Outcomes:
Language Development/Receptive Language Attends to language during conversations, songs, stories, or other learning experiences.
Social Emotional Development/Social Relationships Recognizes and labels others’ emotions.
Social Emotional Development/Self-Concept and Self-Efficacy Identifies personal characteristics, preferences, thoughts, and feelings.
Social Emotional Development/Self-Regulation Recognizes and labels emotions.
PreK Learning Guidelines:
English Language Arts/Reading and Literature 12 Listen to, recite, sing, and dramatize a variety of age-appropriate literature.
Health Education 16 Recognize and describe or represent emotions such as happiness, surprise, anger, fear, sadness.
Watch Together: “Ruby Sings the Blues” #1 (BTL show)
STEM Key Concepts: Sounds vary in three ways: volume (loud or soft), pitch (high or low), and timbre (quality)
ELA Focus Skills: Active Viewing, Compare and Contrast, Listening and Speaking, Vocabulary
Before You Watch
Select a short blues song for children to listen to. (Ray Charles, B.B. King, Fats Domino, etc.) Ask, Does this music sound different from the jazz music you heard the other day? How is it different? Explain that the blues are about hard times and feeling sad, or “blue,” and that’s why this music is called “the blues.”
Tell children that they will be watching the video Between the Lions “Ruby Sings the Blues,” about a girl who sings the blues. Give children a viewing focus. Say, I wonder why Ruby sing the blues. Lets find out!
As You Watch
Pause to review the story action. Ask questions such as,
- What is Ruby’s problem?
- How do Ruby’s parents try to help her quiet down? Her teacher? Her friends? Her neighbors Zelda and Bernard?
- How did Ruby solve her problem?
After You Watch
Discuss the video with children. Ask,
- Why does Ruby sing the blues? Why is she sad?
- Have you ever been sad before? Why were you sad? Do you think singing the blues or listening to jazz music would help? Why or why not?
Social Emotional Tip: Talk about how music can change a person’s mood. Say, If you were happy, what may happen when you listen to the blues? Would you feel different? Demonstrate by playing upbeat music, then a blues piece. Talk about the differences in feelings they have before and after hearing each style of music.
