Spring Early Childhood Classes at Park Ridge Park District!!
**NEW Saturday Classes!!!**
**Now including up to age 5!!!**
Classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, & Saturdays!
Starting Monday, March 30, 2026!
Maine Park Leisure Center
Park Ridge
Register at the Park Ridge Park District website!
Email: [email protected] for more info
Register at the Park Ridge Park District website or Spring Program Brochure
*Real-life-friendly: Make-ups for missed classes encouraged*
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Park Ridge
Spring Program Brochure: REGISTER HERE!! **Age was raised to 5 years after brochure came out 
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Come play with us!
Music & Movement: for kids & caregivers! Parents, grandparents, nannies, friend, aunts, and uncles are welcome to sing, dance, and play along. Babies, toddlers, preschoolers, Pre-K, and Kinders will have a fabulous time singing and learning about the springtime world around them! The theme of our youngest classes is connection. Children connect with their caregivers through musical play, songs, and dances. Children are born ready to learn about their world and their place in it. Even the youngest babies learn to recognize musical patterns, feel rhythms, and common sounds in their world. Come and sing, listen, play, and dance with your child, and watch them bloom before your eyes!
So much more than music!
Connection Musikgarten classes with Kitty-Orca Music and Piano bring children and their parents and caregivers music competency and so much more! Our theme is connection: connection between children and their caregivers, between classmates, between teacher and student, and between students and the musical and cultural world around them.
Confidence Everyone feels more confident when they do well! Combine practice and fun and you get confidence, for students and their parents and caregivers.
Skills All music classes can teach musical skills, but it takes a thoughtful curriculum designed with children at its heart to reach beyond music into Childhood Development Skills.
Musical Development Skills |
Childhood Development Skills |
Tonal: pitch recognition and reproduction Timbre Instrument: playing and recognition Rhythm: Recognition and reproduction Tempo Dynamics Independence Vocal Skills Music Literacy SLIM: Sing, Listen, Instutruments, Move Dance |
Language Listening Social & Emotional Cognitive Connection to Parents & Caregivers Independence Movement Fine & Gross Motor Skills: Stationary and Locomotive Expressive and Rhythmic Free and Directed Whole Body and Specific Body Part |
Kitty-Orca Music & Movement offers classes based on the Musikgarten curriculum.
We bring music and movement to children and their parents and caretakers in a fun and meaningful way that empowers parents to play with their children, fulfills childhood development skills, and plants the seeds for a lifetime of musical competence, confidence, and joy.
We bring music and movement to children and their parents and caretakers in a fun and meaningful way that empowers parents to play with their children, fulfills childhood development skills, and plants the seeds for a lifetime of musical competence, confidence, and joy.
What Is Musikgarten?
Musikgarten was created by a musician and a Montessori teacher to meet the developmental and sensory needs of children to experience music and movement as they explore and organize their concept of the world. Children delight in hearing and making music through listening, games, singing, dancing, movement, storytelling, and playing instruments. Parents–even parents who are convinced they are completely un-musical--are empowered to play musically with their child(ren). In early childhood music classes, parents have a beautiful and rare opportunity to focus on their child and to again experience for themselves the joy of childhood. The real goal of Musikgarten is to connect children and their parents in a shared musical and movement experience.
***PLEASE NOTE**** The following classes and prices do NOT apply to classes taught through the Park Ridge Park District. Please email [email protected] for info!
Early Childhood Music & Movement
Caregiver & Me
Cycle of Seasons
Birth through Kindergarten
-Babies, Toddlers, Preschoolers, Pre-K, Kindergarten-
Expectant Parents welcome!
"Hear the birds, feel the sun on your face, and see the flowers growing?
It's time to enjoy all new things the spring brings!"
$250 ($52 recordings & materials) for one 10-week session of 45-minute classes.
Additional siblings over 6 months old: $100 per family
*Payment plan available
In Cycle of Seasons we don't just hear stories and sing songs, we go on adventures! Our songs, stories, instruments, and dances explore the themes of the seasons kids are experiencing in the real world! In the fall we use our imaginations to visit a local farm to milk cows and pick pumpkins, and visit a Fall Festival. In the winter we sing about the snow and built imaginary snowmen! In the spring we discover baby animals and plant our own garden! A balanced mix of repetition to build confidence, and new experiences and songs to expand our horizons awaits the adventurers of Cycle of Seasons! Focused listening activities teach students how to sit still and listen, and then how to jump up and play. Explore instruments like rhythm sticks, shakers, jingles, scarves, and drums. Experience the joy of childhood again as you experience all that the seasons have to offer along with your child!
Parent/Caregiver attendance is required for all Early Childhood Music & Movement Classes.
It's time to enjoy all new things the spring brings!"
$250 ($52 recordings & materials) for one 10-week session of 45-minute classes.
Additional siblings over 6 months old: $100 per family
*Payment plan available
In Cycle of Seasons we don't just hear stories and sing songs, we go on adventures! Our songs, stories, instruments, and dances explore the themes of the seasons kids are experiencing in the real world! In the fall we use our imaginations to visit a local farm to milk cows and pick pumpkins, and visit a Fall Festival. In the winter we sing about the snow and built imaginary snowmen! In the spring we discover baby animals and plant our own garden! A balanced mix of repetition to build confidence, and new experiences and songs to expand our horizons awaits the adventurers of Cycle of Seasons! Focused listening activities teach students how to sit still and listen, and then how to jump up and play. Explore instruments like rhythm sticks, shakers, jingles, scarves, and drums. Experience the joy of childhood again as you experience all that the seasons have to offer along with your child!
Parent/Caregiver attendance is required for all Early Childhood Music & Movement Classes.
Pre-Piano: Music Makers at Home in the World
Pre-K and Kinders are ready for more!
$350 + $60 materials for one 10-week semester of 60-minute classess.
*Payment plan available
Please email to sign up for info on when this class will run:
We are compiling a list and will run this class as soon as we have enough interest!
More complexity, more movement, more stories, more songs, more instrument playing, more listening, more development skills!
Come explore My Home Place, The Woodlands, The Cattail Marsh, and The Meadow in this full-year curriculum. Starting in our circle on the rug, we don't stay put! Singing and dancing alternate with focused listening to poems and stories about each of our destinations.
Journey with us as we learn melodies, rhythms, dances, poems, and stories. Experiment with rhythm sticks, jingle bells, shakers, scarves, and drums! Little fingers are building fine motor skills to play piano, and small bodies are developing gross motor skills, coordination, and an internal sense of rhythm as we dance our way through our journey. Don't miss this chance to set your child up for a lifetime of music making, including all the basic skills needed to play the piano!
Parents/guardians are expected, if at all possible, to attend class with their children to augment their child's class experience and enhance their parent-child musical bond. If not able to attend the whole class due to siblings, parents are expected to attend at least the last 15 minutes so we can show off what we learned and give home music instructions.
**Younger siblings are welcome to attend and even participate as they are able with parental supervision and assistance from outside the class circle.**
***Walkover service is available for students in After Care at OPS, both to and from class. These parents will need to stay up to date with emailed class summaries & practice instructions.***
Please check our FAQs and then email [email protected] with any questions.
$350 + $60 materials for one 10-week semester of 60-minute classess.
*Payment plan available
Please email to sign up for info on when this class will run:
We are compiling a list and will run this class as soon as we have enough interest!
More complexity, more movement, more stories, more songs, more instrument playing, more listening, more development skills!
Come explore My Home Place, The Woodlands, The Cattail Marsh, and The Meadow in this full-year curriculum. Starting in our circle on the rug, we don't stay put! Singing and dancing alternate with focused listening to poems and stories about each of our destinations.
Journey with us as we learn melodies, rhythms, dances, poems, and stories. Experiment with rhythm sticks, jingle bells, shakers, scarves, and drums! Little fingers are building fine motor skills to play piano, and small bodies are developing gross motor skills, coordination, and an internal sense of rhythm as we dance our way through our journey. Don't miss this chance to set your child up for a lifetime of music making, including all the basic skills needed to play the piano!
Parents/guardians are expected, if at all possible, to attend class with their children to augment their child's class experience and enhance their parent-child musical bond. If not able to attend the whole class due to siblings, parents are expected to attend at least the last 15 minutes so we can show off what we learned and give home music instructions.
**Younger siblings are welcome to attend and even participate as they are able with parental supervision and assistance from outside the class circle.**
***Walkover service is available for students in After Care at OPS, both to and from class. These parents will need to stay up to date with emailed class summaries & practice instructions.***
Please check our FAQs and then email [email protected] with any questions.
Group Piano:
Good-bye traditional piano lessons and quitting after a year!
$350 + $60 materials for one 10-week semester of 60-minute classes
*Payment plan available
Group Piano I for Kindergarten - 5th Graders:
Spring Session: April 3 - June 5, 2025
Wednesdays at South Park Church, 3:40-4:40
Thursdays at Oriole Park Field House, 3:15-4:15
Homeschool Group Piano -- Host a piano class in your house for your kids and their friends!
Email [email protected] to set up a time & inquire about pricing!
Much more information on the GROUP PIANO CLASSES PAGE!
Group piano lessons are stimulating, interactive, and fun! If your kid isn't designed to sit still, this is the class for them!
Each class begins with a Singing Circle, sitting on the floor and singing and playing instruments, even up and dancing with scarves, reviewing old favorites and learning new songs. Then, we stay in our circle and apply a song we sang to learning piano. First we hear, then we sing, then we play on piano, and then we learn to read and write music. Traditional lessons would cost over $600 for weekly 60-minute lessons!
In-class electric pianos will be provided, but students must have access to a piano or keyboard at home for practice.
Parents/guardians are encouraged to attend the entire class, but required to attend the last 15 minutes of class as we will show off what we learned and give practice instructions.
***Walkover service is available for students in After Care at OPS, both to and from class. These parents will need to stay up to date with emailed class summaries & practice instructions.***
Initial practice times are short and serve to reinforce class lessons and should be accomplished by sharing with a parent/guardian.
Please email [email protected] with questions or help with sourcing your home instrument. Many good-quality instruments can be found on Amazon or Costco.com for less than $200. Please click: FAQ entry on choosing pianos.
$350 + $60 materials for one 10-week semester of 60-minute classes
*Payment plan available
Group Piano I for Kindergarten - 5th Graders:
Spring Session: April 3 - June 5, 2025
Wednesdays at South Park Church, 3:40-4:40
Thursdays at Oriole Park Field House, 3:15-4:15
Homeschool Group Piano -- Host a piano class in your house for your kids and their friends!
Email [email protected] to set up a time & inquire about pricing!
Much more information on the GROUP PIANO CLASSES PAGE!
Group piano lessons are stimulating, interactive, and fun! If your kid isn't designed to sit still, this is the class for them!
Each class begins with a Singing Circle, sitting on the floor and singing and playing instruments, even up and dancing with scarves, reviewing old favorites and learning new songs. Then, we stay in our circle and apply a song we sang to learning piano. First we hear, then we sing, then we play on piano, and then we learn to read and write music. Traditional lessons would cost over $600 for weekly 60-minute lessons!
In-class electric pianos will be provided, but students must have access to a piano or keyboard at home for practice.
Parents/guardians are encouraged to attend the entire class, but required to attend the last 15 minutes of class as we will show off what we learned and give practice instructions.
***Walkover service is available for students in After Care at OPS, both to and from class. These parents will need to stay up to date with emailed class summaries & practice instructions.***
Initial practice times are short and serve to reinforce class lessons and should be accomplished by sharing with a parent/guardian.
Please email [email protected] with questions or help with sourcing your home instrument. Many good-quality instruments can be found on Amazon or Costco.com for less than $200. Please click: FAQ entry on choosing pianos.
By the end of the 4-year piano curriculum, students will be able to read, write, compose, and transpose music in all 12 major and all 12 minor keys!
