Creative Curriculum - Extending and integrating Children's Learning

You can extend and enrich children's music and movement experiences by frequently adding new recordings in the listening center and new musical instruments to be explored.  Use the public library to rent tapes, make tapes from records, and encourage parents to help build the classroom tape collection.

One teacher started a "sound table" with a few small boxes and an assortment of objects such as buttons and paper clips and suggested that the children add tho the collection.  The children brought objects they found elsewhere in the room (beads,small blocks) and outdoors (rocks, wood chips, gravel).  From time to time the teacher added new materials, including rice, marbles, tiny bells, and boxes of varied sizes, from band-aid boxes to coffee cans.  Encouraged to try different combinations of boxes and objects, the children became more aware of sound and more interested in exploring the sound making possibilities of the instruments.  They used some of the sound boxes (with the tops glued or taped shout) to accompany their songs and as sound effects for stories and dramatic play.

Group Singing and Movement activities

Singing and moving together is enjoyable for children and helps everyone feel a part of the group.  Even shy children tend to feel a little more at home when singing with the group. Group singing and action games also help children learn to cooperate with agroup, including learning to sing when the group is singing and be quiet when every one is quiet.

Here are some types of songs and related activities that are popular with young children:

Simple songs with lots of repetition ( a repeated line or refrain).  Children's affection for songs such as "Yellow Submarine", "Old McDonald Had a Farm", and "Skip to My Lou" is partly based on the easy , repetitive refrains of these songs.  Even if children cannot remember the verses, they can always join in on the refrain.

Songs WIth Finger Play.  "Wheels on the bus", "Where is thunbkin", and "Eensy Weensy Spider" are a few of the many songs with finger movements that children love.  Some children may participate by moving their hands and fingers before they actually singing.

Songs with funny sounds or silly lirics. Nursery rhymes have lots of funny sounds, like "higgledy,piggledy", "hey -diddle-diddle," and "rub-a-dub-dub."  Many folk songs have silly lirics.  Children like songs that play around with familiar words, particularly with their own names (Annie,Annie,Bo-Bonnie).