By tuning into our bodies, we can experience the basic elements of music - the beat of our hearts, the rhythm of our movements. Our bodies also allow us to express ourselves and to communicate and interact with others, just as we try to do when playing any other musical instrument.
Children understand this intrinsically, and better than adults. They use their bodies to communicate long before they can speak. The sound and rhythms that the moving body senses and experiences resonate deeply within the child. It is natural for young children to do what many cultures still do: move with the music and make music with the movement (see box). So, let's take their lead and let them move!
WHAT DO WE NEED?
To make the most of music and movement, you will need:
- - a space free of furniture and clutter with a clean floor (furniture can be pushed aside)
- - some good-quality instruments like a drum or a bongo, a cymbal and some small percussion for the leader
- - some good songs to help your children move; sometimes you can also use appropriate music from a CD, but live music is more direct and flexible
- - some motivating and calming 'hello' and 'goodbye' songs to play at the start and finish of music time
- - clearly defined and observed boundaries for a safe space where children can initiate spontaneous and creative ideas
- - a picture or story to set a creative atmosphere, which will invite the children to experiment and explore with and through their bodies
- - some props (not essential) to inspire movement, especially if they are open-ended and invite imagination - scarves, ribbons, beanbags, big ball, hoops, cones, soft toys, a large piece of Lycra and another piece of sari material.
The practitioner needs to be creative and flexible but will be rewarded through the enthusiasm and delight of the children, who may be disbelieving that they are not only allowed, but asked to move!
AREAS OF LEARNING
All six areas of learning within the EYFS framework can be developed through music and movement.
Creative Development
Music is normally linked to creative development, but 'when the music moves', we add more than the sum of the parts.
Children are highly motivated by any story (see box), and songs and sounds can enhance that interest. Creativity and imagination are stimulated if we manage to include movement in the space, while pretending or taking on a role also awakens the creative mind. A piece of music or a song offers a framework within which the child can explore and express ideas spontaneously through sounds and movements.
Suggested activities
Animal Antics (for two-year-olds and upwards): Base this around Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett (see p24). Walk around the space with children singing: 'Monkey and me, we went to see penguins/kangaroos/bats/elephant/monkeys!'
Imitate the different movement of each animal within the story. Kangaroos jump forward with both hind legs, penguins waddle, bats can hang upside down, monkeys swing and leap, and when they arrive back home, they all fall asleep (relaxation). The goals are listening, responding, memorising and associating, exploring movement at different speeds and in different positions, learning to control when to stop and start and matching the movement to the sounds.
How Do Dinosaurs Move? (for three to five-year-olds): Introduce the children to different types of dinosaur and how they move. Diplodocus moves heavily and slowly on four legs, the Velociraptor runs like the wind on two legs, the Pterosaur glides on large wings, but a fossil is motionless. Beat a drum to indicate to the children the different speeds and ways of moving, as well as when to stop and start.
What Do Dinosaurs Eat? (for three to five-year-olds): Talk about what dinosaurs eat, then use a chime bar (or similar) to signal the tops of trees (high sounds) and small bushes (low sounds). The children can pretend to stretch up high and bend down low to eat the dinosaur food.
This activity helps with exploring pitch (high, low, up, down) through various ways of moving, and experiencing different tempi (speeds). It also develops imagination and creative expression.
Physical Development
Children experience music as an intrinsic part of themselves through their moving bodies and voices. Through movement, they become aware of their own personal and interpersonal space, and continuously develop control and co-ordination through the use of their 'instrument'.
Suggested activity
This is for two-and-a-half to five-year-olds. The leader sings, 'Can you walk on one leg?' Everyone responds, 'Yes, I can walk on one leg, one leg, one leg; Yes, I can walk on one leg, just like this!'
Then introduce variation, for example: Can you walk on two, three, four legs, no legs, your knees, heels, backwards, sideways, with your eyes closed? Can you walk like a spider, a crocodile, a frog, a crab? Can you walk in slippers, ice skates, high heels, wellington boots?
This activity helps children explore locomotor movement and co-ordination, spatial awareness and direction. Movement on the floor, like slithering and crawling, is very important for the young child's dexterity and the development of their fine and gross motor skills. These early baby movements deepen a sense of security and well-being.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
Through our choice of music, we can introduce children to different styles and cultures or reflect the cultures of the children that we work with. For example, we can use instruments from different cultures, like ankle bells for celebrations of Eid, African drums and Caribbean instruments for Black History month, gongs and cymbals for Chinese New Year.
Suggested activities
For free expression and an exploration of movements to styles of music from different cultural backgrounds, supply a range of long, unsewn, sparkly and colourful pieces of fabric. Wrap yourself and children in the material, and peg or tie it to keep it in place while you dance to the music.
Alternatively, attach ribbons to small sticks or use scarves in a variety of colours. Encourage the children to make big movements, turning, swinging, swaying, waving and twisting, using alternative hands.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Being challenged to listen helps develop the 'inner ear'. Through movement, basic beat and tempo, rhythm patterns, dynamics, colour, texture and pitch are created constantly. We learn to organise, memorise and 'file' sounds, associate them with meaning and use them to communicate and understand.
Listening skills are developed when responding to a musical signal with a movement. The responses, in turn, develop body control, balance, dexterity and spatial awareness.
Suggested activities
- - The children can move around like fast trains and slow trains, stop in stations and later return to the train shed at the end of a musical phrase.
- - They can be horses, walking, trotting and galloping, standing still and waiting for their reward - circus horses, race horses, farm horses pulling heavy carts.
- - In each activity, the leader can lead by playing on a drum/bongo and walking with the children. Gauge the tempo by the ability of a child in the group who moves confidently. Children will respond if asked to listen carefully. They pick up intuitively what the body has to do to match the music.
- - Use additional signals of contrasting sounds to keep the children's attention and to make them sit down/stand up/come to the mat/turn round/balance on one leg.
This activity should keep all children involved without having to sit and wait their turn. They have to listen and respond quickly, distinguishing the different sounds and remembering what they represent. Focus and concentration can be demanded and extended without much effort when activities are fun.
Problem-solving, Reasoning and Numeracy
Children's skills will be developed through the use of numbers, groupings and patterns, which naturally emerge through movement. Children start to think laterally, making links with other activities. Music has a structure, which helps us to be organised and logical. It encourages us to learn to understand abstract concepts of form and phrasing. Mathematical concepts such as shape, space and measures can be present in a song and dance.
Suggested activity
Have children dance in a circle, holding hands or the edge of a big piece of Lycra or elastic band.
Many simple dance pieces have the form A, B and can be used for a simple dance form. During part A, move in and out (towards the centre and back again). During part B, move around the circle. After the first long phrase, change directions.
Suitable songs for dances include 'Lailailai, lailailai' (a traditional Middle eastern song), 'Mhairi's wedding' (a traditional Scottish reel/song), 'Oh, dear, what can the matter be?' and 'Little Brown Jug' (traditional British songs), and '1,2,3 Open Your Eyes and See' (in Game-Songs with Prof Dogg's Troupe: 44 Songs and Games with Activities, book and audio CD by Harriet Powell, published by A&C Black).
Music used this way shows repetition and contrast, phrasing and form, shape, space and measure. Including Middle Eastern music also adds to children's understanding of different cultures and styles. All children can derive a sense of inclusion in a group and team working from this activity, as they can from the following.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
Music and movement, with its high emotional content and appealing playful nature, can motivate a child to engage. It invites communication and interaction with other children and adults, and addresses many areas in a natural and holistic way, as a truly a 'kinaesthetic experience'.
- - Everyone has to be respected and integrated within the group, when being part of a 'band'.
- - All can feel included and supported by the others.
- - We have to wait for our turn and respect others' turns.
- - We have a chance to lead an activity or to accept someone else's lead.
- - We learn to find a partner to dance with and to make a circle without adult help.
- - Each individual can express himself/herself freely through their own personal way of moving when interpreting the music.
Suggested activities
Gathering drum (for oneto five-year-olds) All kneel around and play the drum together. The leader, and later the children, can give spontaneous commands, like stop and go.
- - Explore loud and soft, fast and slow.
- - Sing a song together while walking/sliding/tip-toeing/'dancing' your fingers in to the middle of the drum and pulling them away again.
Hula hoop (for three to five-year-olds): Spread small hula hoops out on the floor. Place one instrument in each (use a variety of drums and attractive ethnic instruments). Play a drum, piano or similar while the children weave around the hoops. When the music stops, each child finds a hoop with an instrument, and has a chance to play and improvise on it. (choose a different hoop each time).
These activities give the children freedom of musical exploration and improvisation within a spatial and musical framework.
Margareta Burrell, a music educator and music therapist, has specialised in the early years for the past 30 years. She is one of two artistic directors of Stepping Into Music, an accredited one-year course for early years music through movement at Christ Church College, Canterbury. She is a member of MERYC UK (Music Educators and Researchers of Young Children). Contact mhburrell53@googlemail.com, www.steppingintomusic.org.uk, www.meryc.org.uk
OBSERVATION: THE DESIRE TO MOVE
'I want to run,' pleads a little boy as we are sitting on the mat, singing our hello song. It is as if he is desperate to play the musical instrument he has brought with him: his own body!
When the time is right, he gets up and runs in the open space, avoiding other children and responding to the playing drum. When the drum beat stops, so does he. When the drum plays more slowly, he slows down, too. He likes to move in his bare feet, to learn to balance and control his movement and to feel the contact with the floor.
When he hears a cymbal clash he hesitates for a moment, looks around as if to check with the others, then turns around. He remembers that this sound is a signal for him to turn! He cannot believe that he is actually asked to run and gladly joins in the galloping and later balancing on one leg, too. He finds a great way of jumping, and some of the others copy him. Someone else wants to be a crocodile and slither on the ground. Let's see who can jump first into the river near the window?
After the busy time moving around, there is another musical signal for all to come and sit on the mat. He is very happy to sit and give his attention and keen focus to the next activity.
CDs
- - Putumayo's Playground and Groove series feature music from around the world, including African, Brazilian, Asian and Arabic (www.putumayo.com)
- - Jazz Kids' CDs cover various styles of music, including jazz, blues, Latin and rock (www.jazzkids.com)
- - A collection of tango tunes and waltzes - look around at the many available versions
- - Classic FM compilations, such as 'Classic FM Relaxation', 'Breakfast Baroque' and 'Music for Fitness'
- - 'L'Arlesienne' suites by Bizet
- - 'Music for the Royal Fireworks' by Handel
- - 'Flight of the Bumblebee' by Rimsky-Korsakov
- - 'The Typewriter' - Leroy Anderson Favourites
- - Music from the Pink Panther films
- - Compilations of film and TV themes
- - 'Marching Bands - The Essential Collection', Avid Ltd
- - Music from our own collection or MP3 player
BOOKS
- - Monkey and Me by Emily Gravett (Macmillan Children's Books)
- - Penguin by Polly Dunbar (Walker Books)
- - Giraffes Can't Dance by Giles Andreae (Orchard Books)
- - Commotion in the Ocean by Giles Andreae (Orchard Books)
- - Owl Babies by Martin Wadell (Orchard Books)
- - Hairy Maclary: Five Linley Dodd Stories (Viking Kestrel)
- - We're Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury (Walker Books)
