CREATIVE MOVEMENT & MUSIC

CREATIVE MOVEMENT & MUSIC Do music freeze to the Chicken Dance Song

The Music Program • Singing Songs, Fingerplays, and Chants • Instruments Using their body as a musical instrument Musical Instruments • Movement Experiences Listening to music and moving to it Doing an activity with a song

Benefits From Music and Movement • Music naturally delights and moves AND Calms and soothes kids • Music is a great transition for change (Clean Up Song) • Provides children with opportunities to explore elements of music (rhythm, sound, dynamics). • Develops self-confidence • Develops language skills • Develops listening skills • Develops Creativity skills • Develops their Cognitive skills

CHOOSING SONGS: • Familiar songs and tunes that they have heard or sung before • Simple Songs with lots of repetition • Old Macdonald had a farm • Songs with funny sounds or silly lyrics • Hey-Diddle-Diddle, Name Song (Annie, Annie, Bo Bannie..) • What is a Knick-Knack Paddywhack? This song has it all!

This old man, he played oneHe played knick-knack on my thumb [some versions use "drum"]With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played twoHe played knick-knack on my shoeWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played threeHe played knick-knack on my kneeWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played fourHe played knick-knack on my doorWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played fiveHe played knick-knack on my hiveWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling home This old man, he played sixHe played knick-knack on my sticksWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played sevenHe played knick-knack up in heavenWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played eightHe played knick-knack on my gateWith a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played nineHe played knick-knack on my spine [some versions use "line" here]With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling homeThis old man, he played tenHe played knick-knack once ag'n [some versions use "on my hen" here]With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone, This old man came rolling home THIS OLD MANCreate a hand-jive to go with this song

Sing when you are doing routine tasks. • Children will pick up on the joyful atmosphere you are creating and also begin spontaneous singing as they move around the classroom. • Remember that making up the words is fine.

PIGGY BACK SONGSUse familiar tunes as "frames" for songs with different words. • Many children know the tune to: • "Row, Row, Row Your Boat", • "Mulberry Bush", • "Frère Jacques", • "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", B. Children will often make up verses themselves, spurring on literacy learning.

PIGGGY BACK SONG ACTIVITY: • Group is given a copy of a song and a topic. Change the song in some way that deals with the assigned topic. • Sample ideas: • 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed (Change monkeys to “Fish”) • Ring Around the Rosies (Change “All Fall Down” to something about water) • Bumble Bee Song (Change “Bee” to an animal on the farm) • Happy Birthday to you (sing about cleaning up) • The farmer in the Dell (sing about the weather) • Row Row Row your boat (sing about the Zoo) - She’ll Be Coming Round the mountain (can you climb like a monkey?) • Divide into groups by giving out two copies of several well know tunes. They are to find the partner with the same song by humming the melody.

Sing songs that have movement in the words. • Examples: • "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes", • "If You're Happy and You Know It", • "I'm a Little Teapot", • "Itsy Bitsy Spider", • "Ring Around the Rosy", • "Hokey Pokey", • "Wheels on the Bus“ • "Old McDonald".

A chubby little snowmanHold your arms in a circle to make a fat belly . Had a carrot nose.Point your forefinger out from your nose. Along came a bunny.Make a bunny with your fingers. Make it hop. And what do you suppose?Turn palms upward and shrug in disbelief That hungry little bunny Rub your tummy. Looking for his lunchShade your eyes, as if looking into the distance. Ate that snowman's carrot nose Make a bunny with one hand and a carrot with the other. Nibble, nibble, CRUNCH! Make the bunny eat the carrot with two small bites and a final big bite. Listen to this song. www.songsforteaching.com/hughhanley/achubbylittlesnowman.htm A Chubby Little Snowman(A Fingerplay)

Choose songs that everyone can act out together, rather than have to wait for a turn, as is the case with a song like "London Bridge".

Add on new verses to familiar songs to enrich vocabulary and concepts. • "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" can have numerous substitute body parts, such as chest and stomach, or hips and thighs. • Children enjoy suggesting the substitutes. • Build on their knowledge.

Keep the rhythm instruments near at hand. • sticks, • drums, • tambourines • for children to latch onto when a song is brewing.

Rhythm Sticks • Tap out your Name • Create a beat pattern and we repeat it • Tap out the beat as someone moves around • Follow a teacher directed beat movement • Listen to a walking beat (slow), Listen to a jogging beat (faster), Pound for a jumping beat. Now have the kids listen to the beat and do the actions. Use a bell to signal freeze. • Tap out a beat to a story (Click Clack Moo By: Doreen Cronin) • Tap out a beat to a song (Sing ‘Ring around the Rosies’ or ‘Sally the Camel’ and tap a beat with it.)

Why Rhythm?

Model clapping and knee slapping to music-celebrate the beat! • Some children may feel shy about singing, but will heartily drum or clap.

Large Group Music TimeSmall Group Music Center • Placed away from noisy and active play areas. • Wide variety of musical instruments for the children to use and explore. • Supplies to create their own musical instruments. • Carpeted / rug to sit on and move around on. • Tape recorders / CD players / Microphones Headphones, Tapes/CD’s • Supplies for the children to do creative movement to the music. • Streamers, scarves, paper plates, costumes, feathers…

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC: • RHYTHM • Clap, clap different sequences • SOUND / TONE • Sounds of different instruments, sound of voice • MELODY • Move hand up and down with notes • HARMONY • Identify notes that don’t sound right • DYNAMICS • Soft, loud • TEMPO/ BEAT • How fast & slow Playing guitar to Elvis Presley music BINGO

TEACHING A SONG: • Practice the song and know it by heart • Being enthusiastic is more important than having a good voice. Animated and smile. • Catch their interest with a picture, object, or story. Relate it to life in a story. • Sing it from beginning to end. Allow them to participate with you while the listen. • Give the children something to listen for. • They can clap along while you sing it a second time • Use musical instruments, pictures, props, costumes, or gestures to remind children of words. • Teach the part that is repeated most often first and then teach other sections of the song.

Create Listening Pictures • Draw or cut and color pictures to an 8x11 poster to teach listening skills for music time: • Soft/Loud • Boys/girls/everybody • Fast/slow

Preschool Playlist • Go through the variety of songs and create a playlist of your top ten playlist songs

Other MUSIC ideas to not Frog”get: • Act out the song – Pretend to be or do what the music says (Horses, Rabbits, etc.) • Guessing games • (Play Name That Tune – guess the sing with first 3-5 notes) • Let them choose the songs to sing • Vary the way you sing, listen to, and move • Sing 5 speckled Frogs in an opera voice, with a country twang, fast, like an old person without teeth, …..

CREATIVE MOVEMENT • Children explore the way their body moves • Opportunity for a child to pretend to be something else • EGG MOVEMENTS (in a plastic egg are different movements) • It teaches body awareness, and what their body can do. • Develops coordination & control of movement. • Touch your ear to your shoulder, keep a balloon in the air using only body parts, move both body parts at the same time • Combines feeling rhythm with movement • Draw to music, streamers or scarves to music, Carpet skate • Have a Musical instrument parade • Shake Bells to ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ and “ring” a xylophone in between lines • Blow up your balloon!

Country music. Feather or balloon float Fast paced music.

Communicates and Expresses their ideas • Children move much better than they speak. • It simultaneously involves the inner being and the physical body. • Move as if you were carrying a heavy box, walk like a giant, run like an animal, be an ice cream cone melting in the summer, make an interesting shape with your body. • Learn how movement is related to space • Make yourself big, small, tall, short • Move around without touching anyone, pretend to be driving a car around the room, float around the room lie a feather • Lift your leg in front of you, backwards, sideways. Step backwards Have 4 people link arms back to back and walk around like a spider while singing Eensy Weensy Spider

Teaching CREATIVE MOVEMENT: • Have lots of room, bare feet allows them to feel the movement. • Children love the familiar & repetition. • Don’t show them how. It restricts creativity. • Say, “Use your whole self”. • “Move how it sounds or makes you feel”. • “Can you. . . . ? Follow me!” • Encourage each child to do it in a different way. • Teach about personal space (bubbles pop if they are bumped) • Teach them how to stop when the music stops: • Emphasize that to stop means not to move at all – not a muscle or a bone! • Encourage children to listen carefully or else they won’t know when to stop.

Blow bubbles and have them imagine a bubble around their body. • Each bubble should be as wide as their outstretched arms and as tall as they are. • Place children far enough apart so that no one is touching their bubble. • Ask one child to move among the children, being careful not to break or touch anyone’s bubble. • Add more children until all children are moving and no one is breaking anyone else’s bubble.

CREATIVE MOVEMENT & MUSIC