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Educational Value of Play - Music
Music and Dance
"Of all the gifts with which individuals may be endowed, none emerges earlier than musical talent"
(Howard Gardner, 1983, p.99)
The early musical experiences of children are very important in that they shape their future musical attitudes and abilities. Children's experiences need to be active (meaning they participate in the experience rather than being merely an audience) and interactive ( where it is a social experience involving their family or peers). Music and dance contribute to children's total development.
To encourage musical development it is important that children's early experiences are enjoyed in a relaxed atmosphere with the support of familiar adults around them. Don't underestimate the importance of (mum and dad) singing to children from birth. Allow children time to discover music and movement, and very importantly, encourage and accept their ideas.
Music and dance transcend all cultures and language. It is a valuable tool for overcoming issues which can occur for children living in a different culture, or where a different language is spoken.
Enjoyment of music and dance come naturally to children and should be encouraged with many experiences and positive attitudes. A love of the 'Arts' in adulthood is a precious gift that we as parents can endow upon our children. To deprive them of musical experiences when they are young will deprive them of the proper development of their creative and self expressive personality.
Musical activities can include singing, playing with instruments, playing with musical toys, moving, listening to cds, changing tunes or words to songs and creating their own music. Young children naturally associate body movement with music. Even tiny babies are observed to react to music with movement of their limbs, and it is surprising how early children will begin moving in time to a catchy tune.
Physical
Moving to music, clapping hands and stomping feet or doing the movements to I'm a Little Teapot are all instrumental in the development of children's large muscle control (gross motor skills). What happier way for children to develop a sense of balance, a concept of moving left or right, up or down, fast or slow than by dancing to music.
Banging the wooden spoon on an upturned pot, sticks on a drum or xylophone, making the hand movements to Incey, Wincey Spider or Little Miss Muffet all help in the development of fine motor skills.
Language/Social
Music stimulates language development. Children respond to the regular rhythm of songs and the rhyme of the words. Using hand/body movements reinforces particular words, making it a sensory experience and therefore all the more beneficial to young children.
There are children's songs about everything that interests them! Through song children can learn the language associated with colour, animal names/sounds, parts of the body, size, shape, positional terms (such as above, below, over, under), object names and weather terms to list just a few.
Music encourages children to participate in an activity. Music is a wonderful way of encouraging shyer children to join in, especially in the warm environment of their own home and amongst the acceptance of their family. Shy children can start joining in the movements and then add voice as they gain confidence.
Children learn to share instruments when playing in a group, and learn to cooperate in a social setting. They soon find out that they need to go the correct way in Ring Around the Roses or else they will bump into each other, and that two children must work together to make the arch for Oranges and Lemons.
Music is also a wonderful medium for children to explore their emotions. Very young children can learn about happy and sad (eg. If You're Happy and you Know It) or deal with fears (eg. Going on a Bear Hunt). When listening to a variety of musical genré (including classical) talk about how the music makes them feel. Some music is happy and bright, some is scary, some is sad. Whilst watching movies, it is a great opportunity to listen for how the movie maker has used music to portray the desired emotions. Peter and the Wolf is a lovely story for children to hear how different instruments are used to represent the different characters in the story. They will learn to tell which character is about to appear just from the music.
Mathematics
Yes, you may be surprised, but music is rich in developing early mathematical concepts!
- Mathematics is about making patterns. Music is made up of rhythms that may repeat themselves. The same phrases are often repeated during the melody. There might be a verse and then a chorus pattern. Children will learn to predict what is coming next. Children can make their own musical patterns using their bodies (eg. clap, click fingers, stomp, stomp....) or with simple instruments (eg. shake a maracca, bang the drum, clash the cymbols).
- Moving to music is an exploration of position, location and space.
- Children learn counting sequence through songs such as 1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive or This Old Man.
- Children can learn ordinal number through songs such as The Bears Went Out For a Walk One Day
- Songs to teach the time, and days of the weeks.
- There are songs about shapes, size and colour.
- Comparisons such as big and bigger, being tall or being small develop early measurement concepts.
- Children develop understanding of addition and subtraction. A rhyme such as Here is a Beehive shows how number grows by adding one at a time. Five Fat Sausages or Five Naughty Monkeys show children what number results as they are taking away one at a time.
Many of the familiar chants of our youth (can we think back that far?) are still relevant to developing our children's minds. So don't feel embarassed 'Nannas' like me out there. Our children may laugh at our little songs as we sing them to our grandchildren, but they will thank us in the end, mark my words! Many families have songs which have been sung to little ones for many generations. Our 'Grandpa' (my beloved father-in-law) always sang a little song 'For A Noise Annoys an Oyster' to my children. I now hear my daughter Tamsin singing that same song to her son Cooper and I know how important and valued that song is to all my children with Grandpa now not with us.
Activities to Enhance Music Making
- Sing lots and lots of songs to your child from birth. Make up hand/body movements to go with the songs - Our Nursery Rhyme section will help jog your memory!
My beautiful grandson Cooper, was clapping his hands when he heard Clap Hands Clap Hands Till Daddy Comes Home - pointing his finger and shaking his head to Miss Polly, holding up his hand and opening and shutting it from Open Shut Them and trying very hard to make Incey Wincey Spider climb up that spout by the time he was 7 months old. - Insert their name into favourite songs to give it more meaning and develop child's self worth.
- Play musical toys when children are going to sleep, or put on a gentle CD.
- Check out our puppets section. Little puppets for many of the rhymes are surprisingly easy to make and delight children.
- Clap the syllables in your child's name - Coop-er = 2 claps. Mum-my = 2 claps. Dan-i-elle = 3 claps. This also is important for developing early reading skills where children learn to break down words into their parts.
- Sing and dance along with your child to popular children's videos such as The Wiggles, High 5 etc.
- Tap out the rhythm on a pot or toy drum whilst singing with your child.
- Video or record on a CD your child's musical performance. This allows them to listen/watch themselves, developiing their sense of worth and showing them you value their performance.
- Help them make their own simple musical instruments
- shakers from small plastic drink bottles with macaroni/rice inside. Colour rice or macaroni with edicol dye (craft shop) to make it even more exciting. Make sure the lid is taped securely in place.
- rain makers to make the beautiful sound of rain falling - use a long tube (such as one from inside a role of wrapping paper). Stick long dressmaking pins in a spiral pattern going down the tube. Seal one end of the tube and wrap masking tape all the way down the tube covering the pin heads. Now add rice to the tube, seal the other end and decorate. When the tube is inverted, the rice sounds like rain falling.
- decorate blocks for tapping sticks. - Remember while we silently curse our 'friends' who give our little ones noisy toys, the benefits really far outweigh our headaches!!!!!
