“Hmmm… Whatdya think comes next?” “Let’s sing to find out”
I wonder to what extent music can be beneficial in the classroom? We’ve already proven that music can help with rote memorization. As educators, this can be used to our advantage. Music and movement is something we should consider when teaching young children. I’m currently in a class where we discussed the benefits of moving around frequently in class, and that we get more brain power by simply moving around.
In fact, while in the field I have been witness to this when directing a free play type of station during our station rotation, which for the most part encourages movement when engaging in the next station. While working with various students in station rotation format I was able to use the alphabet song to guide a puzzle that students had chosen to participate in.
While students were engaged in finding puzzle pieces that matched with different pieces, I was able to direct the puzzle building in a more logical way. I asked students if they knew what the puzzle was. Their responses were “the abc’s”. While some students were actively trying a trial and error approach to whether the puzzle pieces would fit together, I simply posed the question “Hmmm… Whatdya think comes next?” Because not all of them were completely aware of the entire alphabet, they had enough knowledge to construe that there could be an order by matching certain pieces together. I then followed the question by saying “Let’s sing to find out”. While pointing, and having them point with me we sang the alphabet together and we were able to solve the puzzle through music. I would pause when there was a puzzle piece missing in the alphabet, and we continued to use the song, as well as the artwork on the pieces (starting sounds such as F for frog) in order to piece it together.
What else can we gather through the use of play? Play has already been proven to be one of, if not the best way children can learn. Can we use play to modify behavior in the classroom as well, can we use musically directed play? What possibilities exist within the domain of music and movement, just movement, or just music? Play is going to be the liaison to tie these questions together. Music therapy may be an option as well when helping students recollect themselves if they’re having a bad day.