Ten Steps to Successful Music Teaching in The Early Childhood Classroom
Young children learn by doing, by being actively involved
in their learning through exploring and experimenting,
through copying and acting out. And so it is with learning
music, the foundations for which are best learnt while
developing primary language. As such, a successful early
childhood music program must incorporate movement and
should quite naturally involve learning across the
curriculum. The music program, therefore, can form the
basis for the whole curriculum.
1. Make it Fun. They are not in your class to learn music,
but learning music is what happens while they're having
fun. It it's not fun you've lost them. Fun for them may
not be fun for you. If it's not fun for you, you'll NEVER
be able to convince them that you're enjoying it. You'll
start using every excuse not to do the music session
because you'll see it as a chore. If, on the other hand,
you have a song, a piece of music or an activity you think
is really cool, you'll have no trouble engaging the kids as
your enthusiasm will carry them through. Sounds pretty
logical, yet few class teachers conduct music lessons as
part of the daily curriculum. Find a resource that suits
you and do something every day - even if for only five
minutes.
2. Establish clear rules from day one. Without this your
class will quickly disintegrate into a shambles. They must
stop when the music stops. This encourages listening
skills. Listening is a skill that has to be learnt.
Hearing is a sense we are born with. There's a huge
difference. If they can listen, they can respond, and they
can learn. Teach them about "space bubbles". Have them
stand with arms outstretched and gently swing around.
No-one is allowed to go inside their space bubble. Anyone
who does must sit to the side. They will not want to miss
out on the fun so encourage them to join in for the next
track of music or next activity. Do not allow "time out"
to be a preferred option. Not every child will feel
confident enough to participate fully but sitting out is
not an option.
3. Young children learn by doing. Get them actively
involved. Music at this age is music and movement. This
will incorporate story telling through use of percussion
instruments or drama; it will involve dance and action
songs and also singing. It will also involve interpretive
movement - play some gentle classical music and use scarves
to stimulate the imagination.
4. Include motor co-ordination activities. This will
stimulate and integrate right and left sides of the brain.
Musical instruments are played with both hands. This
subject is the topic of a great body of research. Children
today are generally not physically active enough to get
sufficient stimulation to establish neural pathways. If you
can do something daily in the way of motor skills,
especially cross-patterning activities conducted to music,
it will help enormously.
5. Relate activities to their level of understanding.
Engage their imaginations. They live in a fantasy world '
take advantage of it. You personally may not feel inclined
towards fantasy. It doesn't matter. Whatever engages them
is what matters. Whatever you are wanting them to learn
can be done best by engaging their imaginations, and
fantasy is the easiest. Use drama in any way to engage
their imaginations.
6. Praise them often. They respond best to positive
reinforcement. A baby is born fearless. No matter how
many times the baby falls over when attempting to walk, and
despite injuries along the way, he or she will get up and
try again, over and over until that skill is finally
mastered. It never occurs to the child, or anyone else,
that you have to get it perfect the first time. Everyone
encourages them which is an added bonus. Somehow along the
way though, by the time many children are in mid primary
school, they have already been given so many negatives
which erode their self-esteem that they give up trying new
things.
7. Remember the K.I.S.S. principle and Keep It Simple
Sunshine. Only do a few activities or songs at a time in
your music lesson. Repeat them often and only when
mastered do you add modifications or a new activity. Keep
the whole lesson simple but fun. Do not confuse simple
with easy. If the class structure is simple, you can
easily add in a more challenging activity.
8. If the children are unused to music and movement
sessions, do not try to be too ambitious. Five minutes a
day may be enough for the first few weeks, depending on the
children. Repeat the lesson (maybe up to three or four
times) until confidence and competence improve. They need
the repetition. You can add modifications for greater
complexity and variation or change one or two activities
before moving onto a new lesson. Set them up to succeed.
9. Initially the teacher should model the movements but
not necessarily do all the running around. Choose a child
to model for you (or the Teaching Assistant or even a
parent) if you prefer not to or are unable to model the
movements yourself. Observe the children's ability to
perform the skills in movement, music, drama, listening and
social interaction. The music lesson thus contains so many
more outcomes. You are then leveraging your time by
combining learning areas. That is why the movements need
to be modeled appropriately.
10. Finish each session with stretching and relaxation.
(Stretches should never hurt.) After a "mat session" music
lesson the stretch only needs to be a full body stretch on
the floor, after which the children close their eyes and
listen to the music. Initially -
Tell them what you want them to listen for, or, tell them a
story of what the music is about, or, ask them to tell you
what they think the music is telling them.
If you don't relax the children at the end of the lesson,
thus utilizing this time for the affective aspect of music,
they'll be unsettled for the rest of the day, especially if
it's a dance and drama session. When they are used to
relaxing at the end of the lesson they will happily lie
down and relax but they need to be taught how to first.
Each relaxation session, therefore, does not necessarily
have to involve active listening but initially it must.
Children are sometimes loud and boisterous because they
think that's how they are expected to behave. Give them
permission to be still and silent and teach them how. They
need it.
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Marlene Rattigan is an Early Childhood and ESL teacher with
a background in Music and Physical Education. She has
written the Kidz-Fiz-Biz resources - Kidz-Fiz-Biz -
learning through drama, dance and song, and Kidz-Fiz-Biz
MULTICULTURAL - learning about other cultures through
drama, dance and song. To purchase, to receive her free
e-newsletter or for further information, go to
http://www.kidzfizbiz.com .
