Magical Movement Company: Carolyn's blog

Introduction to the Elements of Music: Presto and Largo!

Carolyn 12:44 AM

MOVING 'PRESTO' & 'LARGO!'

The musical continuum of "Largo" all the way to "Presto" is a very fun concept for children to explore.

"Presto" is the music term for fast and refers to how quickly the beat is moving in the music. The term for slow is "Largo", and then there are so many variations in between these two ends of the musical spectrum!

Photos by Jeri-Jo Idairus (from Carolyn's Magical Movement Archive)

Moving "Presto" like a bumble bee...

or a fast running cheetah!

Moving "Slowly, Slowly," like a sloth...

or like an elephant at a "Largo" pace!
(Photos by Jeri-Jo Idarius from Carolyn's archive)

In music classes all over the globe, children are having fun MOVING in an endless variety of ways while, all along, there are little seeds of rhythmical memory growing happily in each child's brain.

You probably already know how much young children enjoy moving FAST---! But, the challenge of moving very s-l-o-w-l-y can sometimes be even more fun for a child. And the secret benefit of playing with these opposites (Presto and Largo) is the child's growing ability of "inhibitory control."

I found this wonderful place on the web where you can interact with an on-line metronome. Check it out! You can play some fun games with your child.

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/metronome/

Set the metronome to a Largo beat and sing "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" to match the beat you have set. Then change the setting to a Presto beat and try singing the song again to match this new beat. And of course, any kind of fun movement activities set to match the metronome beat will be fun and probably end up filling the room with lots of giggles.

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Music, Dance, Drama: Storytelling and Young Children

Carolyn 1:08 PM

A MUSIC STORY FROM AFRICA: LITTLE CHILDREN JOIN IN SONG, DANCE & DRAMA!

The art (and music) of storytelling: These pictures tell all!

This photo and the one prior are from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

During our recent Kindermusik celebration, ending the school year semester classes, we all played our drums to accompany a wonderful African story about "Spider, the Drummer" (learned from Beverly Botsford). I realized that telling a story to children can be so mesmerizing and very different from reading a story out loud to a group. This story is from the genre of "Anansi the Spider stories" from African folklore.

HERE'S HER WEBSITE:

http://www.ibiblio.org/musicians/beverly_botsford.html

Add songs, chants, rhymes, dances, or musical instruments to a storytelling scene and the story experience is even more enriched! These kinds of music stories follow the important tenants of the Orff-Schulwerk Method of teaching music. Read more about this at the website: What is Orff-Schulwerk (AOSA)

I also found some interesting information on a website called "Storynet.org". Here's the link: http://www.storynet.org

From the "Storynet" site:

"What are Americans most scared of? In second place is death. In first place is public speaking. Let's nip neurosis in the bud! ...Storytelling has all the benefits of read aloud. It improves language skills such as vocabulary, prediction, sequencing, comprehension, story structure and recall. These skills will also help children become better writers. Just as is the case with read-aloud, children who engage in the activity learn about history and culture, develop emotionally and have better self-esteem. Storytelling stimulates imagination to the nth degree. And storytelling creates a love of story that translates into a potentially life-long love of books the same way read-aloud does.

Storytelling and read aloud must be brother and sister. Or, at least, first cousins.The difference between read aloud and storytelling ... is that the act of storytelling is always active and inventive. The child needs to synthesize all sorts of cognitive operations (brain stuff) with gross motor skills (body stuff) and emotional interpretations (feeling stuff) to execute this performance, and because of this synthesis, every performance is unique to the teller. The other difference is the connection with the audience. The eye contact alone makes storytelling a different animal than read-aloud. When you try it, you'll see."

Click the link below for a short video of Beverly Botsford giving a preview of one of her story telling gigs:

The Orff-Schulwerk of Music: "Angry Birds Baked in a Pie"!

Carolyn 2:02 PM

NURSERY RHYMES ARE A RICH PART OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT & MUSICAL COMPETENCE!

"Angry birds baked in a pie...Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?

Illustration by Randalf Caldecott (1846-1886) from Hey Diddle Diddle and Bye, Baby Bunting. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1882.

True, many of the old nursery rhymes are what we consider politically incorrect and out of style. Nowadays, it's angry birds on a hand held device who are being noticed by children playing a video game. Nowadays, it seems cruel to think of baking black birds in a pie just so the king could have a joke or two!

Photos from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

However, many educators believe that the children of today are missing out on a rich part of language development because they don't listen to and recite old fashioned nursery rhymes.

This book is available at Amazon at this link: Favorite Nursery Rhymes

Doug Goodkin, an internationally renowned Orff-Schulwerk presenter and instructor, has written many books on music and young children. He happened to be one of my instructors when I took my Orff-Schulwerk training in the 1990s and I can attest to his expertise in the field of music education. He has also been the music director at the San Francisco School since the 1970s and he has worked with children from preschool age through middle school. Here is the link to his site: http://www.douggoodkin.com

His wonderful book, A Rhyme In Time, is chock full of great ways to introduce children to the principles of music through nursery rhymes. His books can be found at Amazon: Amazon Doug Goodkin's Page.

In his book, Doug observes:

Nursery rhymes are rich in sound; "Jack and Jill," "Lucy Locket, "Peas Porridge Hot"... all set the young speaker down the garden path of alliteration. The work of phonetics is greatly enriched by Mother Goose...the play of language comes to the forefront.

Here, Doug offers a great comparison about imagery:
Imagery: "The cow jumped over the moon...the dish ran away with the spoon" "Five geese in a flock...sit and sing by a spring"Such delicious images in these rhymes! The young child's dreamlike world is given an even greater vibrancy by the color in these word pictures.Years later, this experience with alliteration and imagery will re-surface while reading Gerard Manley Hopkins:"...skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; moles all in stipple upon trout that swim..."Compare that to some contemporary children's songs:"Oh, you walk and you walk and you walk and you stop!""Touch your shoulders, touch your knees, raise your arms and drop them please."Gone is the fancy, the music, the poetry! The children fed on this diet will grow up to be good respectable citizens who read the newspaper, but they will miss one of the great gifts of language---its capacity to evoke fantastic imagery." (from A Rhyme in Time, Doug Goodkin)

Illustration by Randalf Caldecott (1846-1886). "And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon," from Hey Diddle Diddle and Bye, Baby Bunting. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1882.

Parents & teachers can play many musical games with young children using old fashioned nursery rhymes. Some of Doug Goodkin's ideas are:

Adult speaks each phrase, leaving out the rhyming word, then inviting the child to fill it in

Child (and adult) can "mime" the actions

Adult & child can sing one part and then say one part, or match gestures (ex: arm high/low) and sing/say the words in a high then a low voice

The text can be transferred to rhythm instruments or to body percussion

You can create a new text

Create a new text in another language!

Turn the whole thing into a movement activity (ex: hop to the words of one part of the rhyme, then tiptoe for another part)

There will probably be many fun ideas that your child comes up with all on her own, too!

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Modeling the Love of Music: Parents and Scaffolding Learning!

Carolyn 3:22 PM

PARENTS & SCAFFOLDING LEARNING

Do you know who your child's first and most important teachers are?

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club.

Parents, grandparents and primary caregivers!

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

The child pictured here is copying the modeling provided by the adult in this fun music activity of playing maracas. The happy child is being held in the adult's arms. This loving support happens to be a foundation of the scaffold of learning that this child is experiencing.

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

"Modeling" to a child how to do something has always been a teaching tool and parents often do this spontaneously. These "teachable moments" occur daily in the lives of families with young children. This is often referred to as part of the process of "educational scaffolding".

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

Here's a definition of scaffolding learning:

"Instructional Scaffolding"

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Instructional scaffolding is a learning process designed to promote a deeper learning. Scaffolding is the support

given during the learning process which is tailored to the needs of the student with the intention of helping the student

achieve his/her learning goals (Sawyer, 2006).

Instructional scaffolding is the provision of sufficient support to promote learning when concepts and skills are being

first introduced to students. These supports may include the following.

Use of instructional scaffolding in various contexts:

Modeling a task
Giving advice
Providing coaching

These supports are gradually removed as students develop autonomous learning strategies, thus promoting their own

cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning skills and knowledge.

From Kindermusik International, the following is an outline of the musical profile of preschoolers. By having fun with these activities together, families can help children develop important skills.

Developing beat awareness
Matching beat to external sound source
Becoming increasingly successful with the rhythm and tone of songs
Beginning to sing accurately
Differentiating between the singing and speaking voice
Beginning to understand musical concepts of:

Loud/Quiet
High/Low
Long/Short
Fast/Slow

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius (from Carolyn's Magical Movement Company archive)

Great games can be created by singing or chanting a familiar song with a change of dynamics each time. Helping the child to develop these skills at his/her own pace is something parents can do while "modeling" and just plain having fun.

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius Photography (Carolyn's Archives)

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius (from Carolyn's Magical Movement Archive)

Here you can see a mom and daughter making a sock puppet together in summer music camp at the Muse in Willits, CA. Later, the mother/daughter puppets can "sing" and "play games" together. A fun way to scaffold learning!

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Music & Movement Go Together: "We All Fall Down"!

Carolyn 9:54 AM

MUSIC GAMES: "WE ALL FALL DOWN!"

Why do young children love games that incorporate falling down and getting back up?

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius from Carolyn's Archives

These photos show "The Carousel Game" in Summer Music Camp: Up and down then we all fall down!

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius from Carolyn's Archives

"Rat-a-tat-tat" building the carousel back up again!

Foundations of Learning from the Kindermusik International curriculum, offers one answer to the question of why children love falling down games so much:

As young toddlers have the physical experience of falling down and then getting back up, a significant emotional event occurs as well. They are encountering and overcoming a fear of imbalance, and are developing confidence in their physical skills. From, The Emotional Life of the Toddler, by Alicia F. Lieberman, we learn: "Bodily movements often carry strong psychological meanings. With young children in particular, motion conveys emotion more powerfully than words. In the second year of life, motion is centered on the achievement of balance, and the risk of losing this balance becomes a central concern. Physical balance stands as a symbol for emotional balance in child play as well as in adult imagery."

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius from Carolyn's Archives

Throughout early childhood, children continue to enjoy "falling down" games. Even older children love to incorporate "falling down and jumping back up" into pretend play. One of the favorite games in the 3-5 year old curriculum from Kindermusik is the song about the jack-in-the-box:

(The children start out by crouching down inside their pretend boxes and the adult begins by winding up the pretend crank on the boxes)

The Jack-in-the-box jumps up (children jump up)

The Jack-in-the-box goes flop (children fall down)

The Jack-in-the-box goes round and round (children stand again and wobble around)

The lid goes down with a plop! (children fall down again)

Photo by Jeri-Jo Idarius from Carolyn's Archives

There are so many motions that help children continue to develop a sense of balance and self confidence. Here is a list of ways to move from Kindermusik's Movement Chart. A wonderful benefit is the vocabulary development that comes from using these fun words.

walk
sway
swing
tiptoe
run
leap
skip

bounce
crawl
nod
lean
slide
shake
hop
clap
gallop
Add some great descriptive words like:
fast/slow
high/low/in the middle
between/below/above
zigzag/curved/straight
on balance/off balance
alone/connected
sharply/smoothly

If you run out of fun movements here are some interesting ideas:
slither
march
lunge
waddle
twist
dodge
melt

creep
glide
press
bend
spring
slash
swoop
wriggle

Have fun playing and moving and singing and grooving!

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The Benefits of Music: Movement is the Magic Ingredient

Carolyn 5:56 PM

MOVEMENT: THE MAGIC INGREDIENT

My mentor used to tell us that turning a child upside down nurtures brain development.

Photo from the artists at Dollar Photo Club

Nina Mogar, Professor at City College in San Francisco, has been studying brain development in young children since the nineteen sixties! I was fortunate to have been in her Child Observation Classes during the 1970s when my own children were very young. Read more about Nina at his link: Nina Mogar Project Commotion

Nina Mogar, ECE Professor at City College San Francisco, CA

One important component of these parent education classes sponsored by City College, was the Movement Room. The first half of Nina's 2 hour class would be held in the activity room where children 15 months to 5 years old would explore hands-on activities like sand play and building blocks. Nina would be buzzing around the classroom quickly explaining to parents the benefits of these activities for their child's overall development, especially their brain development.

Photo from the artists at Dollar Club Photo

The second half of Nina's class was held upstairs where we had a whole gymnasium set up for little tots to move to their heart's content! This was Nina's passion! There were metal and wood climbers along with large balls and cloth tunnels galore. But the really popular activities were Nina's "inventions."

There were sturdy hammock swings hung with both ends connected to the ceiling from a single huge hook so that a small child could straddle it like riding a horse. We put small pillows in the "swing" to create a comfortable spot for the child to sit and the child's feet were able to touch the floor so they could push themselves off with little help from the adults. Children could swing back and forth or even twirl around and they did!

From the "La Siesta" Hammock Swing Site

This, Nina told us, helped nurture both sides of the child's developing brain so that the child could later easily learn to read and write as well as solve problems.

There was this "thing" she called a "Bumpity-bump" that was a very popular activity center. Nina sewed king-sized sheets together and then filled these with chunks of foam cut-offs that you could get at foam bed stores around the city. When a child took a step onto the Bumpity-bump, s/he would immediately experience a change in the center of balance and with each step that center would change. There was always a soft place to land and roll around upon a Bumpity-bump, and children clamored to get a turn on this fun "thing."

From "Star Fish Therapies" Website

But the true benefits of walking, crawling, and tumbling on this "thing" was, according to Nina, the beginning of problem-solving and negotiating in space that the child was forced to do. The child was finding her/his own center of gravity.

Amidst the giggles and wonderful movement fun, the children were getting a good dose of food for their developing brains. Learning to take risks in a safe environment! And, this was definitely the most engaging part of her wonderful program for young children and their parents.

Movement fun in Music Class October 2011

The Following photos by Jeri-Jo Idarius Photography (from Carolyn's Archive: Magical Movement Company)

Movement is a part of every one of my music classes for children and the adults who attend with them! Music simply cannot be experienced without moving and so it is a natural occurrence, especially in the case of young children.

However, we also understand that children need to move in order to learn. This important component of a child's experience in music class is thoughtfully incorporated and welcomed in every one of my lessons.

A young student will be encouraged to hop, hop, hop along to music that is "staccato" (filled with short, separate notes) and then encouraged to sway and rock to music that is "legato" (filled with long, connected notes).

And, of course, the teacher always delights in the child's spontaneous expression (within safe classroom guidelines!) of movement to the varied musical selections that are offered to the children.

Movement is the magic ingredient for success in the music classroom for young children!