Early childhood music activities are a very important part
of the curriculum in our Montessori classrooms to enhance skills in our young
learners. Activities such as finger
plays, songs, dance, drums and rhythm instruments help with enhancing cognitive
development, language and communication, and fine and gross motor dexterity. These activities also provide children with skills
to help with memory, attention, motor play, pretend play, imitation and turn
taking. Specific activities such as pitch
exploration and echo singing enhance children’s language and communication skills
during this time of development. When
children listen and repeat phrases of a song, they are being introduced to new
words and sounds and are able to begin separating words into syllables or beats. Music is also important to enhance fine and
gross motor dexterity with activities such as finger plays where the child in
using hand movements to imitate or play out the actions of a song. Action songs and dances help to increase the
gross motor skills by allowing the movement of the whole or parts of the body
while singing or making music.
The extended day children have been learning about different instruments over the past several weeks. They have been working hard on making rhythm sticks, rain sticks and keyboards. Thank you to parents who have been bringing in materials to make these projects happen.
The Chickadees have been learning about beats, rhythms and tones and have been having fun with movement activities with the different instruments.
We would like to thank Tom, Annadeene and Eliot for playing instruments and singing songs with the Chickadee classroom during our morning circle.
