The following programs require an additional fee and enrollment application:
MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
Jonathan Green teaches Early Childhood Music & Movement classes at Keystone. Classes include singing, dancing, movement, and the playing of instruments such as drums, tambourines, shakers, sticks, eggs, bells, and others. As we have fun improvising and creating, we are developing fine motor skills, expanding our ability to express ourselves through sound and movement, learning to match pitch and rhythm and exploring sound and the senses. We'll also have fun exploring numbers, colors, letters and animals. Each lesson is designed around specific musical and developmental components which are organized to provide your child with experiences that will enhance his/her musical development. In learning to use their voice for singing, playing simple instruments, developing careful listening skills, exploring expressive movement, and developing a sense of basic timing, a foundation is laid for future musical learning and growth.
DANCE MOVEMENT
Patricia Bulitt teaches Dance Movement to our Blue Heron and Snowy Egret classes ages 2.5-6 years. Her work is based on each child’s own creative response to her suggestions. She invites the child to explore his/her own body movement by giving directions such as: "If you were to make a long, tall shape, what would it look like? What about a crooked shape? What about a round shape near to the ground?" In a group of 12 children, there would be 12 different and unique ways to respond to these directions. Patricia’s program focuses on helping each child achieve awareness of and facility with their body’s muscles-large and small. She teaches them to reach, bend, lean, jump, wiggle, roll, run, slide, hop and skip. She combines stretching exercises with story-telling and original poetic phrases. Patricia uses dance patterns repeatedly, helping children learn some complicated dances and perform them with ease and confidence. Learning dance patterns and performing them to music are abilities that are central to a young child’s development.
SPANISH
Rosa Abedini teaches Spanish classes at Keystone. Rosa believes that children benefit from exposure to a language different from their own, and presents her spanish curriculum in an enjoyable way. She feels that the experience of learning a new language provides many opportunities for children to grow. She uses art, movement, dramatic play, music, and reading to help children develop facility in Spanish. The lessons are designed to work with different subjects, including Latin American holidays and celebrations, the idea being that children learn something about Spanish culture, heritage and traditions as well as the basics of the language.
MANDARIN
Lucy Weichun Liu teaches Mandarin classes at Keystone. Lucy also teaches Chinese at Ocean View Elementary School in Albany. Lucy likes making learning Chinese fun and exciting. She uses songs, poems and stories to help the children learn Chinese. The lessons start with learning numbers, the names of the parts of the body, greeting words, family member names (father, mother, sister and brother), the colors, the shapes of objects and words used in everyday life. Eventually the children learn to speak simple sentences in Chinese.