Music & Movement

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are enjoying the last days of summer!  If you are already back in school, I wish you success in the new school year.

Recently, some early childhood teachers told me they have noticed that some young children seem to be having more difficulty these days using their fingers and hands to do basic activities such as tie their shoes or zip their jackets.

One reason for this problem might be that, reportedly, children are spending more time in front of TV and computer screens, time when they are not using their fingers to play or to make things. Helping children develop fine motor skills, skills involving the movement of the fingers and hands with strength and dexterity, is crucial during the early childhood years.

Children need to develop good fine motor skills so they can do activities such as pour themselves some juice,  button their clothes, draw and write! 

Below I have listed some ways teachers can help young children develop fine motor skills in the early childhood classroom:

1. Play-Doh and Clay

Provide children with the opportunity to use their hands to explore play-doh and soft modeling clay.  Encourage them to pound, roll, squeeze and do a variety of different physical actions on the material. Add some implements such as small rollers and cut-out shapes for them to use. 

2. Finger Play

Teach children rhymes and songs that include actions with their fingers and hands such as Where is Thumbkin?  and The Wheels on the Bus. These are excellent activities that encourage children to use their fine motor skills as well as language and cognitive skills.

 3. Puzzles

Provide children with an array of puzzles including puzzles with large knobs, small knobs, large knobless pieces, small knobless pieces, large pieces and small pieces, table puzzles and floor puzzles, in order to encourage fine motor development.

4. Art

The art area is a great place to help children work on their fine motor skills.  Although not all children enjoy art, most children willingly will explore tissue tearing, painting with different size brushes, pasting an array of collage materials and paper folding.

5. Self-help skills  

Set up opportunities for children to practice basic self-care skills such as frames for tying, buttoning, snapping and zipping. Encourage children to attempt to dress themselves for outdoor play, gym time, nap time and any other time when they might need to change clothes. 

6. Blocks

Children can be encouraged to use their fine motor skills in the block area or with a set of construction materials on a table top.  Children are actively using their skills when they build a tower with blocks, construct an object with Lego® or Duplo® blocks, or move a small car around a pretend block village.

7. Games

There are many games that encourage children to use their fine motor skills such as pattern bead stringing, placing pegs in boards, parquetry blocks as well as board games such as Chutes and Ladders and Lotto.

8.  Scribbling, Drawing, Tracing, Writing

Providing materials for children to create marks on a piece of paper or on a white or black board, gives them the opportunity to explore the writing experience and strengthen their fine motor skills. Including materials such as finger paints, markers, crayons, chalk, stencils, paints and pencils will enable them to increase their skills and explore new media.

Do you have enough opportunities in your classroom for fine motor skill development?

What kinds of activities do you think you might add this fall?

Best wishes,

Dr. Vardin

Early childhood artists such as Hap Palmer, Ella Jenkins, Greg and Steve, Mar. and Vincent have created holiday CDs especially for your classes.  Many provide “music only” versions, so your children’s voices will be easily heard.

Holiday time is also a great time to explore different cultures as well.  Whether you have children from a variety of cultures or not, you can help your students discover other cultures through holiday music. 

If you do have children who come from different backgrounds, enlist their parents’ help in selecting songs to introduce.  Don’t forget, young children are most engaged and learn best when music is combined movement, so include movements to the songs when possible.  In addition to the music, you may want to ask parents to bring in foods — both traditional holiday foods and foods from other lands.

·        Play holiday songs on your CD player throughout the day.

·        Teach the children the words to holiday songs and send the words home so children can sing them with their families at home. Include simple instrumental accompaniments to the songs such as a tambourine, bells, or a drum. For example, Jingle Bells is a wonderful song to sing during the holidays. Have the children use real jingling bells to accompany the singing.

·        Encourage children to draw pictures of the images the holiday songs bring to their minds, connecting art and music.

·        Encourage the children to share their favorite holiday songs with the group.

·        Ask parents to come to school and teach the children holiday songs from their family’s traditions.

How do you make holiday time special in your class?

Best wishes,

Dr. Vardin

Dear Early Childhood Educators, 

Welcome to the Early Education Corner, a little space on the world-wide web early childhood educators can “gather” and “talk” about topics related to our work with young children! 

Are you running a summer program for young children? Summer programs can be lots of fun for children and teachers alike. Sometimes teachers find it a bit challenging, though, to plan activities for children that are different from what they do during the school year.  Here are some ideas that may be helpful to you: 

1.  Increase outdoor playtime.

Try to schedule lots of outdoor time each day. If children were at home for the summer, chances are they would be spending as much time as possible outside.   

This is a great opportunity to engage children in active play. For unstructured activities, make sure that you have enough play equipment so that each child has something to do and that each play area is carefully supervised.  For structured activities, bring your CD player outside to enjoy movement with music (the use of music increases participation of even children who are reluctant to move¹).   

Adding materials such as a sand box or a sand table as well as a sprinkler or a wading pool can add hours of fun to your program. If you plan to spend long periods of time outdoors, be sure to include shady play areas, sunscreen and lots of available drinking water.  

2. Do arts and crafts projects.

Summer is a great time to explore all those wonderful arts and crafts projects that you might not have time to do during the school year. Some suggestions include making a collage of summer things such as flower petals, shells, and leaves, painting a class mural on butcher paper fastened to the fence, using colored chalk on a walkway, creating puppets by decorating household items such as wooden spoons and paper towel rolls and using the art easels outdoors.  Making a variety of art materials available to young children will also encourage them to design their own art projects as well. 

3. Have a picnic.

Everyone loves a picnic! Involve the children in planning and preparing a class picnic. With your assistance, children can help develop the menu, prepare the food, plan the activities and carry the picnic basket – and of course eat the food! Memory games such as “I packed my picnic basket” and music such as the Teddy Bear’s Picnic can add to the fun! 

4. Shows, shows, shows!

Add some live entertainment to your summer program! Children love even the simplest  performance.  Puppet shows, children’s theatre presentations, magicians and children’s concerts can all be exciting experiences for young children. During the summer, you might even be able to find high school or college groups that will perform for your students for free or for a reasonable fee. 

5. Take a trip.

Summer is also a great time to take field trips. Before any field trip, be sure to have enough chaperones. 

Field trips for young children don’t have to be elaborate affairs. Excursions as simple as a walk to the fire station, the post office or the grocery store are adventures for young children. Be sure to prepare the children for where you are going by discussing the venue and reading books. 

Taking a trip to the library can be fun and educational for young children.  Often libraries have a story time where the librarian reads a book to the children. Learning how to choose and check out a book helps children establish positive feelings about the library and helps them develop a love of books. 

What activities will you be doing with your group this summer??  Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Best wishes,

Dr. Vardin

¹ I Am Moving, I Am Learning: A Proactive Approach for Addressing Childhood Obesity in Head Start Children.  Region III, Administration for Children and Families. (Philadelphia, PA: 2006), p.10.

Hello Everyone!

Our topic for this month focuses on young children who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and how teachers might address their needs in the classroom.

Do you have children in your classroom (or have you had children in your classroom) who could be considered English Language Learners?  Most of you would probably say “yes” in response to this question, right?

In many cities and suburbs and even rural areas, more young children are coming to school from homes where English is not the spoken language.  Unfortunately, early educators often do not have the background or training to help young children who do not speak English as a first language. 

I would like to share some ideas with you that help support language acquisition for the English Language Learners in your classroom.  First, a few tips in general:

1.       Teachers need to communicate respect for the child’s background and language to the children as well as to the child’s family.

2.       Help the child feel accepted and comfortable in your classroom. Children need to feel secure before they will freely express themselves in the classroom, especially children who are just beginning to learn a new language. 

3.       Always try to communicate meaning to the child.  Use objects and pictures as much as possible to teach basic vocabulary. Use gestures and body movements to teach actions.

4.       Remember that it will take time and practice for children to acquire a new language so teachers need to praise efforts and give children many opportunities for success.

5.       Integrate the English Language Learners with native English-speaking children in the class. Plan activities that will pair or group children who speak English with ELLs. This will give the English Language Learner the opportunity to learn from his or her peers.

Here are some specific music and literacy activities that might help your English Language Learners:

·         Develop a collection of songs that are sung on a daily basis so the children can hear the words and phrases repeated over and again.

·         Use songs that ask for specific movements, such as Simon Says, so ELLs can imitate their classmates.  An early stage of learning English involves observation and imitation. 

·         Teach rhymes, poems and songs with simple words and phrases that include repetition like London Bridge, The Ants Go Marching.

·         Teach songs that will help expand vocabulary such as body parts in What a Miracle! by Hap Palmer and farm animals in Old MacDonald.

·         Select music that teaches letters, shapes and numbers so children can enjoy the activity as they become familiar with the new words.  Songs that use movement to reinforce the concepts will help children remember them.

·         Play songs for transitions to different activities.

·         Use music that includes movement activities so children can enjoy moving to the music as well as learning the words of the songs. 

·         Use a wide range of books that contain pictures and words. Point to the pictures as you read the words so that children will learn what the words mean.

What are some activities that you have used to teach young English Language Learners in your classroom?

I want to thank those of you who have been responding to the blog with your insightful thoughts and feelings about early education.

Please let me know if there are topics that you would like me to address in the future. We would love to hear from you!

Happy Spring!

Dr. Vardin

Dear Early Childhood Educators,

Welcome to the Early Education Corner, a little space on the world-wide web where we early childhood educators can “gather” and “talk” about topics related to our work with young children! 

Each month I will be sharing some ideas with you about teaching young children.  I hope you will share your ideas as well so that we can have a lively discussion!    

This month I have chosen to write about music in the early childhood classroom. 

I think we would all agree that most young children love music. But why is music so important to children? Here are some of my thoughts on the subject. 

1.  Music has a positive effect on young children’s development!!

New research shows that music has a positive influence on young children’s cognitive skills such as spatial reasoning and memory. Research also shows that providing children with a rich and stimulating environment involving all the senses, including the auditory sense, can support children’s healthy growth and development.

The Nemours Foundation (a non-profit organization founded by philanthropist Alfred DuPont to improve the health of children) notes in a 2008 report that:

Research has shown that children who are actively involved with music (who play it or sing it regularly):

1. Use a song to greet each child in the morning during morning meeting as part of attendance.
2. Use a song or instrumental music during transition times such as clean-up time or snack preparation time.
3. Play background music during free play or centers time. Be sure the music isn’t too loud or distracting from the children’s activities.
4. Play quiet lullabies or soft classical music during nap time or rest time.
5. Use music to teach letters, shapes, numbers or any other concepts in the curriculum.
6. Sing songs and play instruments as part of the daily routine.
7. Use music to enhance games and movement activities.
8. Add music to creative drama and art activities.
9. Use music to help children learn about other cultures and other lands.
10. Use music to celebrate special events and holidays.

2. Young children enjoy making music with others!!

Making music with others gives children a wonderful feeling of belonging to the group. Children who might have difficulty joining in activities with others because they are shy, have limited English ability (ELLs or language delayed) or special needs, can freely participate when it comes to a music activity. 

3. Music makes young children happy!!

Children seem to experience much pleasure and joy listening to music, making music and moving to music. Whether they are singing along to a CD, playing a rhythm instrument or skipping to music around the classroom, most children seem to thoroughly enjoy participating in a music activity. How wonderful it is that with very little effort, a teacher can bring such happiness to children each day just by providing the opportunity to do a little something with music. 

I hope you and your students will enjoy making music together! 

Please let me know about ways you have used music in your classroom! 

Looking forward to hearing from you. 

Dr. Vardin

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