MusicSmart

Linking Music Activities to Early Childhood Goals

By Dr. Sue Snyder

This is the text of a PowerPoint presentation to Pre-school and Kindergarten teachers in Fort Worth, Texas. I have elaborated on that text to include portions of the keynote address for which the presentation was created. Song texts are included when not under copyright, or when permission has been granted by the composer. Otherwise, a source is provided, along with a website link whenever possible. Songs and other activities or materials are indicated by blue text. This presentation is available as a keynote address to early childhood or Kindergarten teachers, and ideally will be followed up by smaller workshops where we can explore the ideas in more detail, and share many more materials and activities.

Opening Song #1: "Hello," Traditional Children's Song

Hello, hello, how do you do?
How do you do? How do you do?
Hello, hello, how do you do?
How do you do today?
If you're (wearing yellow) stand up,
If you're (wearing yellow) stand up,
(Clap, clap, clap your hands) - 3 times
Now you can sit down

Opening Song #2: "Take a Bite of Music," by Mary Ann Hall

From the small book and tape, Take a Bite of Music It's Yummy, and can also be found in Grade 2 of Share the Music, published by McGraw-Hill.

Session Outline

1. What are our readiness goals?
2. Why music?
3. What can we do?
   • Parents
   • Caretakers
   • Teachers
   • Schools/Organizations
4. Applying what we learn.

Readiness

For those of us teaching Pre-K or Kindergarten, readiness is the skills and understandings children need to successfully enter Kindergarten or First Grade. In reality, all caretakers, teachers, parents, and organizations are working on readiness - for the following grade, following stage, or for life in general. In this sense, we see ourselves as an important link in a continuum. In early childhood, our link is no less than essential.

Readiness includes:

• Social/Emotional Skills, which will be the greatest predictors of success in life.
• Self esteem, which is crucial for all learning.
• Physical Skills
• Communication Skills: listening, speaking, singing, drawing, gesturing
• Basic Concepts such as colors, letters, numbers, vocabulary
• Categorizing Skills, what is the same and different
• Compare and Contrast Skills, which is the higher order level of Categorizing
• Experiences on which to draw. These are perhaps the most important of all, as they provide a frame of reference for future learning. The more experiences from which a child can draw, the better s/he will understand both learning and the world.

These are all literacy skills.

Music

• Music is one of four "arts," music, visual art, dance, and drama. Although they are often lumped together as "the arts," each is a separate way of knowing.
• Music, then, is a separate discipline, with specific understandings and skills.
• Music is the language of sound.
• There are National and State music standards; and Early Childhood benchmarks.
• Music is linked to all other ways of knowing.

Music and Readiness

Music is essential for healthy, whole humans. How do we know?

• Brain Research
• Theory
• Experience

One powerful theory that has gained a lot of acceptance is Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner identifies 9 different and unique ways of knowing and communicating about the world:

• Linguistic
• Logical/Mathematical
• Musical
• Visual Spatial
• Bodily Kinesthetic
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalistic
• Existential

• The first two are the greatest predictors of success in school, while interpersonal and intrapersonal (the social intelligences) are the greatest predictors of success in life. The three between are the mediators. If we can deliver language and math understandings through the arts, we will deliver the personal or social skills at the same time.
• Each intelligence is a way of knowing about and communicating in the world.
• Each is wired in from birth. Everyone has all of them.
• Each is the right of every child.
• Gardner says if you don't teach to every intelligence in every day it is educational malpractice.

Teaching with the Brain in Mind
Arts with the Brain in Mind
By Eric Jensen

These two books synthesize research from a wide range of sources, to support inclusion of the art as an essential part of every child's day.

"In a nutshell, the evidence is persuasive that (1) our brain may be designed for music and the arts and (2) music and arts education has positive, measurable, and lasting academic and social benefits. In fact, considerable evidence suggests a broad-based music and arts education should be required for every student in the country."

"The collective wisdom from real-world experience, clinical studies, and research support the view that music has strong, positive, neurological systemwide effects. There's virtually no evidence of downside risk."

We are neuron farmers!

As we look at pictures of neurons from an "impoverished" brain, and then from one that has been in an enriched environment, we see that the enriched neuron has had exposure and experiences that lead to long and multiple dendrites. As these enriched neurons find and link to one another, they create a neural mass that is predisposed to receiving and processing certain kinds of input - sound, image, words, or movement. The larger these areas of the brain, the more ready the child will be for learning. We can consider ourselves neuron farmers, providing the nourishment that grows healthy, robust brains. (Thanks to Carlotta Parr for this analogy.)

An enriched environment does not, however, mean an extracurricular one. Music and all intelligences form the core of learning, and therefore must be allotted significant time every day.

Music-making makes us human.

• Music is core curriculum. This was true even before President Bush signed the new education law that states that the arts are core curriculum. This law simply acknowledges what educators have known and research bears out. The arts are at the core of educating healthy and whole children.
• Music enhances biological survival - hard-wired into our genes as a survival strategy. If music had not been a critical element in human survival, it would have become extinct long ago.
• Music has developmental periods:
  • Prenatal: The fetus responds to sound and music at 4 ½ months in utero. Loud sounds tend to disturb the fetus, but other music is fine. It is not necessary to bombard the mommy's tummy with Mozart all day long.
  • Birth to 2: This child has a "plastic brain," meaning that neurons begin predisposed to certain intelligences, but not yet placed. Through experiences, the neurons become placed and grow into masses that begin to compare and cotrast all other experiences, seeking patterns to make understanding. At this age lullabies, steady beat activities such as bouncing, rocking, or swaying; rhyming, and playing simple rhythm instruments are appropriate.
  • 2-5, Early Childhood: The brain is still growing very quickly at this point, and goes through several critical periods where it is more predisposed to specific types of experiences and growth. At this age singing, funny songs and rhyme, listening to and playing unpitched instruments such as drums, scrapers/shakers, metals, and woods; clapping and rhythm games, nursery rhymes, and frequent moving to music are important activities.

Jensen's recommendation: "Increase the appropriate use of music, including singing, listening to music, and playing instruments."

How do we help kids get MusicSmart?

• Making music is more powerful for children than just listening.
• We use developmentally appropriate activities and materials.
• We focus on music experiences that build skills and understandings.
• We build self-esteem and creative thinking skills through music.

Music Affects Multiple Systems

In this section, there will be a short bit of information on how music affects several different systems. Then we will do an activity (it will be suggested) that demonstrates how this might occur and be supported in the classroom to help children develop both musically and across the curriculum.

Music Affects the Emotional System

There are three main ideas:

• Music can help children use emotional states to regulate their lives, and this skill can be learned.
• The middle brain is emotional center, and also acts as a gatekeeper to information coming into the brain. This middle brain determines whether input is sent on to be processed, or is ignored. Threat and fear inhibit the gate from being opened. Music and the arts lead to emotional states that allow processing to take place.
• When children are involved in music, we create a high-speed path to emotional effectiveness through music making.

Example: Music can be used to build self esteem. The song, "I Am a Person," by the Fairfax Public School Music Teacher, is a simple example of a song that builds self esteem and collaboration in the classroom. You can find this song in Share the Music, Grade K.

I am a person, a very nice person.
I am special as I can be.
I am a person, a very nice person.
I like me, oh, I like me.

You are a person, a very nice person.
You are special as you can be.
You are a person, a very nice person.
I like you, and you like me.

Music Affects the Perceptual Motor System

Three main and different ideas were addressed.

• Music reorganizes the brain for effective listening. Through focused listening tasks, the brain is physiologically changed to make it increasingly better at listening skills. As the aural centers become larger and more linked to other areas, listening can then be applied to all areas of learning.
• Singing enhances cognition. There are a variety of studies that indicate that singing every day is linked to higher achievement.
• Music can regulate movement, increase muscle control. Athletes use music to help them optimze their skills by finding the tempo and effort that matches their optimum performance skill. For early childhood teachers, lively music can help a lethargic child become more animated and focused. On the other hand, calming music can help an overactive child or group calm down and regain focus.

Building Listening Skills

We used "Echo" from IDEAS Music, CD I. It can also be found on IDEAS Music Tape I, which is included in the 27-inch classroom scarf kit. This piece is constructed so one instrument plays a short phrase, then several instruments echo the pattern exactly. This continues throughout the entire piece. The movement, then, should have a leader moving and then the group imitating. At first, the children imitate the teacher. Very quickly, this activity can be done in a circle formation, with each individual around the circle taking a turn at being the leader. This may be done with scarves, or not, and specific parameters can be added, for example, "Everyone lead a pattern that only uses your feet and legs."

In Tune Singing

There is often criticism of early childhood teachers' ability to sing in a developmentally appropriate way with children. I have recently heard a prominent clinician tell early childhood professionals that if they don't have pleasing singing voices they simply shouldn't sing with children. I totally disagree! The children don't care, and will love you no matter what you sound like. This does not mean that you should not try to improve you singing by finding your singing voice, and using as light and pleasing tone as possible. And every child should be presented with good models of children singing through quality recordings every day if you don't sing in tune.

• Often teachers place the pitch too low for children, whose vocal cords are shorter and therefore produce higher pitches. Children should also be singing in a range where they will find and use their lighter singing voices, rather than their heavier speaking voices. So raise the pitch to appropriate level for children.
• Many songs provided for young children have too wide a range. Young children sing in tune at the range of a 5th or 6th. Songs such as "Happy Birthday" or "The Star Spangled Banner" are simply not possible for young children to sing in tune. In addition, once learned incorrectly, the muscle memory makes it nearly impossible to sing these songs in tune in the future.
• One good source for echo songs is "Sing Along, Sing Alone," by Linda Worsley. The songs are sung by teacher and children on one side, then on the second side of the tape the children can "sing alone" with the instrumental accompaniment. In this way they can hear their own voices, and begin to match pitch. The light voices are a perfect example for young singers. There is a kid's activity book that is included, and additional books can be purchased separately. One kindergarten teacher we know uses these books with all her kindergarten students to give them additional musical experiences while enhancing their pre-literacy understandings of print.
• Share the Music, Grade K, published by McGraw-Hill, is full of developmentally appropriate songs for children. The CDs are excellent models of good singing in a variety of styles.

Authentic Literature

Just as in language arts, we have a responsibility to expose children to the highest quality literature. Authentic literature stands the test of time, and in music this includes songs, poems, fingerplays, and listening selections. Rhythmic speech is equally musical to song literature, and for teachers who are uncomfortable singing, this may be a place to start. Here's a favorite fingerplay:

Three little muffins in the bakery shop
(You know, the kind with the honey and the nuts on the top)
Along came a child with a penny to pay,
And bought one muffin and ran away
And there were two little muffins ...
Ending: "What, no muffins?"

Music and Movement

Music rarely is done alone in early childhood, and is often paired with movement.

• Movement skills can be learned with and/or without music, but have their own beat and patterns that make them musical.
• Non-locomotor movement keep you in one place. They include twist, bend, sway, smile, clap, pat, dab, and so on.
• Locomotor movements allow you to move through space, and include walk, jog, tip-toe, backwards, sideways, hop, jump, and so on. We used our "hand feet" to do these activities, since we were in a confining space.
• Locomotor movements are done along pathways, which can be straight, curved, zig-zag, scalloped, and so on. These pathways sometimes make shapes, and shapes can also be made by creating statues with your own body.
• Short, often made-up, songs can help children create formations, or walk pathways.
  Let's make a circle round and round
  Well, you walk, and you walk, and you walk, and you stop.
• Once children have explored individual movements, put together sequences of two or more actions to create longer movement sentences. This stretches the memory, and leads to increased concentration.
  • The Teletubbies model includes four actions in sequence using action words, that are repeated by four individuals. Based on the TV show, this patterning may seem simplistic to adults, but is the perfect model of creative problem solving, and can become a first step in choreography for children.
  • Another example of movement patterning to music is Classical Moves, by Barb Stevanson. This book/CD/video set provides a model of teacher and students, doing patterned movement sequences to classical music selections including "In the Hall of the Mountain King," "The Hallelujah Chorus," and "The Entertainer."

Scarves and Canopies

Movement scarves and canopies are simply magic with children, and there are endless possibilities for use.

For early childhood, the ideal is the 27-inch classroom scarf kit that includes 24 scarves, the IDEAS Music Tape I, Velcro to hang the scarves on a wall, door, or presentation foamboard, and a booklet of directions. In Fort Worth, Dr. Kelly has purchased one of these kits for each early childhood location.

In addition, 9- by 9-foot canopies are available in 12 different colors. They can be used like parachutes, except that the children can see through them, removing fear and increasing the fun. They are great for building cooperation. Try using a white canopy with some white feathers spread on top, along with a snow song on a snowy day. Or sing a water song and use the blue canopy with fish above. The children moving the canopy need to control it to keep the feathers or fish on the canopy. Those underneath build eye-hand coordination by reaching for the objects above and watching them move.

Note: Our keynote address ended here, but I will include the remainder of the notes, so you have the entire presentation.

Music Affects the Stress and Immune Response Systems

• Music changes heart rate, blood flow, chemical makeup.
• Music brings sense of well being and increases attention and recall.

Steady Beat is the cornerstone to learning, and affects the timing of individuals. Children who can't keep a steady beat have difficulty reading. Those who don't learn to keep the beat become "untimed" adults, who have difficulty organizing their movements and their lives. Steady beat is a skill and can be learned with practice.

An example of a steady beat activity for early childhood:

Five Little Monkies hanging on a tree.
Teasing Mr. Crocodile, "You can't catch me! You can't catch me!
Along comes the crocodile, slow as can be ...
SNAP!
Four little monkies . . .etc.

Music Affects the Cognitive Systems

• Music is linked to spatial reasoning, creativity, generalized math skills, decision making, problem solving.
• Reading memory - song rehearsal of text
• Listening rather than hearing

Ear cleaning - building from sound to pattern

What does our world sound like?

Have the children listen to sounds around and imitate them, picture them, put them in sequence. We had a picture of a cat, dog, and chick, which could be held up by a leader in each of three groups. All of a sudden we would have "Opus 1" from the barnyard!

Rhyme - Key to Decoding

Use Nursery Rhymes to highlight rhyming words, which can be played on instruments.

Star light, star bright,
First star I see tonight.
Wish I may, wish I might,
Have the wish I wish tonight.

Rhyming Songs

You can't do these often enough. Have the children make up new rhymes every day if possible.

Down By the Bay
I've a Pair of Fishes

Prereading Skills - Tracking from Pictorial to Traditional

"Star and Starfish," is a story focusing on high and low in Share the Music, Grade K. The picture in the Big Book is a good example of pictorial representation of characters. The characters are represented with high and low instrument sounds, providing additional motivation and novelty for the most reluctant learner.

Pictures Can Represent Rhymes

"A Hunting We Will Go," in Share the Music, Grade K, is a fine example of pictures representing both steady beat (the dinosaur feet across the bottom of the page), and rhymes (the pictures of the fox in the box, and so on.) The traditional song provides many rhyming verses. Once the children get the idea, they are ready to create their own rhymes.

Pictures Can Represent the Beat

"Little Ducky Duddle," in Share the Music, Grade K, pictorially represents the beat with one duck on each beat bar. This activity allows children to Read Left to Right, Top to Bottom, and left page to right page.

Music Affects the Attention and Memory Systems

• Music activates attentional system through novelty.
• Music activates multiple memory pathways to improve chances for retention and recall.

Playing Instruments

• Any sound source is an instrument
• Categorize by shape or sound
• Add to a story, poem or song
  • Princess Goodnight, Star and Starfish
  • Hickory Dickory Dock
  • A Hunting We Will Go, Little Ducky Duddle, A Sailor Went To Sea Sea Sea
• Take turns with visual signs--families of instruments play on circles, squares, triangles, squiggles.

A Few Words About Music and Performance

• Don't talk during the performance! You are the model of respect.
• Use telling and asking sentences that help focus on the sound.
• Tell facts and feelings - Know the difference.
• Tell things you like.
• Make suggestions for alternatives

Teach good performance and audience behaviors:

• Teach difference between audience and performer.
• Performance should be extremely informal for young children. Informance is better.
• Don't exploit children. They are not with you to give you power.
• Encourage, empower, enable.

Arts Success (from Teaching with the Brain in Mind)

"Give a school daily dance, music, drama, and visual art instruction in which there is considerable movement, and you might get a miracle. In Aiken, South Carolina, Redcliffe Elementary test scores were among the lowest 25% in the district. After a strong arts curriculum was added, the school soared to the top 5 percent in six years. This Title I rural school with a 42 percent minority student base showed that a strong arts curriculum is at the creative core of academic excellence - not more discipline, higher standards, or the three Rs." (Kearney 1996)

Additional Reasons for Music and the Arts

• Increased student attendance and motivation;
• Increased creativity and writing;
• Lower dropout rates at the high school level;
• Increased teacher attendance;
• Development of analytical skills, particularly high-level transfer (using an idea in a new situation);
• Increased parental involvement;
• Openness to diversity and multicultural issues (cultures based on ethnicity, learning styles, and disciplines)
• An ethic of high performance and collaboration.
• Development of community insistence, support, and participation;
• Increased interest in historical/geographical, etc. topics;
• Increased test scores.

From Champions of Change--a new GE Fund/MacArthur foundation report

• Champions of Change compiles the results of seven major arts education research projects and finds:
  • Students with high levels of arts participation outperform "arts-poor" students on virtually every measure.
  • The arts have a measurable impact on students in "high-poverty" and urban settings
  • The arts in after-school programs guide disadvantaged youth toward positive behaviors and goals.
  • Learning through the arts has significant effects on learning in other domains.
  • Arts experiences enhance "critical thinking" abilities and outcomes.
  • The arts enable educators to reach students in effective ways.

Visit www.aep-arts.org and www.pcah.gov.

You can do it!
You MUST do it!

Music experiences early and often give children a learning advantage!

How Often?

• Every Day
• Every Week
• Every So Often
• Every chance you get!