This is an offering to the children and families of the infant classroom from the infant teachers. The ideas and questions contained within are applicable for many age groups.
Who better to offer some inspiration for working with materials than the children!? Children are creating schemas about the world around them & their impact on this world. When given a multitude of materials and the time to experiment, children will build upon existing schemas and construct new ones: learning!
The following are examples of things the children explore and what we have observed the children doing when absorbed in explorations around music. The observations listed are both from the video as well as myriad other explorations. Next, we propose ways you could offer music and sound to provoke continued construction of their developing schemas.
What we observe: Finding the beat, children noticing when the style of the music changes: eye tracking changes, facial expressions changes, being motivated to create sound when listening to music.
How you could offer material:
How you could offer material:
- Playing different types of music (e.g. heavy drumming, soft melody) can provoke finding new beats
- Offer instruments or sound-making materials alongside a listening experience to provoke creation while listening
- Change music or pause music mid-way through listening, observe child's response (do they sign for more?)
- Play music in the background during an everyday experience
- Make a song a "cue" for something, e.g. putting away materials (even if you're the only one putting away materials for now), play a certain song in the background. Starting to make dinner? Play another specific song (or better yet...maybe make a whole making dinner playlist)
- Dance yourself to the music with your child (freeze dance anyone!?)
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