WHAT KIND OF MUSIC SKILLS CAN YOU EXPECT FROM PRESCHOOLERS?

To successfully teach music to preschoolers you must first know what the children are capable of doing.  I admit that when I started teaching preschool music, I had a lot of head knowledge and very little practical experience.  I believed everything the "experts" wrote and as a result, I spent the first 18 months readjusting my expectations.  I was told that a toddler could echo back a rhythm, a 3 year old could keep a steady beat and all 5 year olds could sing on pitch.  Imagine my surprise when I learned that most of those developmental milestones were not typical - at least not for the kids I was teaching.  Maybe they were true for a class of musical prodigies, but I was teaching, heaven forbid, average students!!  (Read the sarcasm, please..)

Let me share with you what I've learned about the musical development of children ages 2 - 5.  Now, I am not professing to be a researcher who has performed case studies on this topic.  I am only speaking from my years of experience.  My experience has taken me to almost 20 different preschools in my area.  I've been with classes full of privileged children and classes full of poverty-level income children.  I've never taught a class of children who were developmentally delayed, although I do regularly teach children with Autism,  Down's Syndrome, speech delays and other developmental issues.  Unless you are dealing with children with severe emotional, psychological or developmental issues, the musical aptitudes that I am going to lay out should apply.  Each age will build upon the skills of the younger groups.  So, a 3 year will be able to accomplish the skills of a 2 year old in addition to some new skills and a 5 year old will be able to do everything a 2, 3 and 4 year old can do plus some new skills.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM....

2 YEAR OLDS


1.  Follow simple dances
2.  Recognize simple notes (quarter note, two eighths, half note and quarter rest)
3.  Play jingle bells, maracas and hand drums.  They will not be able to keep a steady beat, but will be able to play/rest as you demonstrate.

3 YEAR OLDS

1.  Repeat very simple beats (ta ta ta ta, or ti-ti ti-ti ta ta, for ex.)
2.  Recognize themes from different genres of music such as The Baby Elephant Walk, Flight of the Bumblebee and The Surprise Symphony.
3.  Recognize rhythmic patterns that use two different types of notation .  Eg:  ta rest ta rest, ti-ti ti-ti ta ta)
4.  Begin to sing some notes on pitch within a small melodic range
5.  Play simple group activities

4 YEAR OLDS


1.  Play a wide variety of rhythm instruments including hand bells, rhythm sticks, wood blocks and tone bells.
2.  Recognize and sing the themes from different genres of music.
3.  Identify which songs go with which composers
4.  Identify composers from pictures
5.  Recognize and repeat more complex rhythms
6.  Develop more accurate pitch recall
7.  Use musical terminology accurately (forte, piano, fine, allegro, adagio)
8.  Begin to improvise simple dances and rhythms, often with much timidity

5 YEAR OLDS


1.  Most will be able to keep a steady beat
2.  Most will be able to sing on pitch within a small vocal range
3.  Increased ability to improvise.  By age 5, a lot of children are more willing to take chances and are developing the ability to think for themselves.
4.  Participate in more complex group games


As I said before, this is by no means a comprehensive list and is based only on my own teaching experiences.

We should never expect perfection from our preschoolers; they are only beginning to develop these new skills. It may take several weeks for a new skill to become second nature to a preschooler, and that's ok.  If you are a preschool teacher, let me encourage you to use your own common sense when working on music skills with your kids.  You are the expert on those kids.  You are the most aware of what they can and can not do.  Trust your instincts.  And if you introduce a music activity that flops, so what?  Go back to the drawing board and try it again another day.

TEACHING PRESCHOOL HAND BELLS THIS WEEK

I have the pleasure of teaching an elementary hand bells class this week at the Suzuki Piano Institute being hosted at the University of Louisville this week.  This class consists of beginner piano students, all who have not yet progressed to two hand playing.  It's a fun group to teach.  I'm accustomed to teaching hand bells to  students who have had no formal music training and it's amazing how much difference even one year of formal music lessons can have on a child's overall musicality.

For more information on the Suzuki Piano Institute, check out their website at:  www.suzukipiano.org

NAME GAME FOR PRESCHOOLERS

Dibbledee  Dibbledee Do Re Mi
Can you say your name for me?
Child 1:  "John".  Everyone says and claps together:  "John!  John!"

Continue until everyone has had a turn.

This game is good when you are in a group where you don't know the children's names - maybe you are teaching a workshop or are substituting in a classroom.  There are other name games that you can play with preschoolers.  A couple of suggestions:

• Who Stole the Cookie From the Cookie Jar?
• Guess Who

Have children sit in a circle.  Pick one child to be It.  It sits in the middle of the circle wearing a blindfold.  The teacher points to one student sitting in the circle and that child says, "Guess who I am".  It has 3 chances to guess who spoke out.    

MORE CATERPILLARS AND BUTTERFLIES!

I've got two more butterfly/caterpillar rhymes for you.  Both of these rhymes can be used as simple finger plays, or you make them into dramatic play activities for older preschoolers.  I found both of these tucked away in some old notebooks of mine, so I'm not sure who to attribute them to.  If anyone knows who the creators of these rhymes are, please let me know.


There was a little caterpillar, crawling all about
He worked and he worked without a doubt
(use index finger to wiggle like a caterpillar)


Wrapping himself in a snug cocoon,
Waiting and waiting.  Will it be soon?
(cover index finger with other hand)


Look, friend, he's coming, my oh my!
Now he's become a butterfly!
(cross thumbs to create a butterfly)


To make this into a dramatic play activity, have the children wrap themselves up in a blanket on the 2nd verse and then they can emerge from the cocoon on the final verse.






Roly-poly caterpillar (use R index finger to wiggle like a caterpillar)
Into a corner crept (place R index finger into cupped L hand)
Spun around himself a blanket (roll hands in front of you)
Then for a time slept (pretend to sleep)
Roly-poly caterpillar (use R index finger to wiggle like a caterpillar)
Wakening by and by (stretch/straighten R index finger)
Found himself with beautiful wings
Had become a butterfly (cross thumbs to create a butterfly)


Let the words of this rhyme guide you to create a dramatic play activity for preschoolers.  Encourage each child to come up with their own movements - and not to simply do what everyone else is doing. Individuality does not come naturally to preschoolers and as teachers, we need to encourage them to begin to think for themselves.



And don't forget to add The Very Hungry Caterpillar to your reading list during caterpillar and butterfly week!

CATERPILLARS!!

The life cycle of a butterfly provides an endless supply of teaching material for preschoolers.  Simple poems about caterpillars help to reinforce a young child's sense of the internal pulse of sound and music and the life cycle itself can be used for creative movement and improvisation.  I found these two songs/poems while scanning the internet this morning. Once the children have had a chance to learn the songs, let them try their hand at improvising a dramatization or even creating a simple dance, letting the lyrics guide their movements. 

The Fuzzy Caterpillar

(to the tune of "The Eensy Weensy Spider")

The fuzzy caterpillar
Curled upon a leaf,
Spun her little chrysalis
And then fell asleep.
While she was sleeping,
She dreamed that she could fly,
And later when she woke up
She was a butterfly!

Found out:  http://www.canteach.ca/elementary/songspoems26.html

The Life of a Butterfly
(Tune:  Skip to My Lou)

I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
I'm a caterpillar, wiggle with me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
A chrysalis, now sleep like me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
A butterfly, come fly with me,
What'll I be my darlin'?

Now all together, let's do all three!
A caterpillar, a chrysalis, a butterfly, three!
Move your body like this with me,
The life of a butterfly, darlin'!

Found at:  http://www.tooter4kids.com/LifeCycle/poems.htm

CATERPILLAR AND BUTTERFLY SONGS

Caterpillar Conga by Tim Russ and Jedda Roskilly

Fly, Fly Butterfly by Muffin Songs

ROLL THAT BALL

A ball activity for preschoolers:

Sing these word to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle:

Roll the ball to a friend
Roll the ball to a friend
Roll the ball to a friend
Roll a ball to a friend....


The words are very, very simple for this activity because you don't want to spend a lot of time learning to sing a song.

What to do:

• Have the children sit in a circle and sing the song.  
• When you sing the word "roll", roll the ball to a child.  They have to roll the ball back to you the next time you sing the word "roll".
• Once the children have gotten the hang of the activity, remove yourself from the circle and let the children roll the ball back and forth to each other.

Although this is a very simple activity, it will be harder for preschoolers that you might think.  This activity develops critical listening skills (listening for the world "roll" before they can take action) and  gross motor skills.

BOUNCING BALLS

I've wanted to teach lessons that were centered around balls for a long time.  I've begun to introduce my lesson plans this week, and after the first day of teaching, I can tell that I will need to revise some of my original ideas.

Bouncing balls seems like such a natural, easy thing to do.  But for preschoolers, this is definitely a difficult skill for them.  I expected 2's and 3's to have a hard time bouncing a ball, and I figured that it might be hard for some 4's, but I was flat-out shocked to learn that even my 5 year olds had a hard time bouncing a ball.  My original idea was to have the 5 year olds perform an activity that I found in a Wee Sing booklet:  Using the rhyme One- Two- Buckle My Shoe, the children bounce the ball on the one-two and then pass the ball to their friend on buckle my shoe repeating the movements so that the ball gets bounced on number words and then passed on to a friend.  Even with the children sitting down in a circle and the bouncing done in a controlled environment, the children didn't understand that they had to let go of the ball in order to make it bounce.

I am going to continue working with the children in this skill for the rest of the month.  I'll let you know what kind of progress they make!

In the meantime, here are some songs you can use for a ball theme:

Rubber Ball by Bobby Vee

Bouncing Ball Song from the CD Romper Room Do Bee Song

I Have a Tennis Ball by Juice Music

Take Me Out to the Ballgame by We Kids Rock

CHAMBER MUSIC FOR PRESCHOOLERS PART 2

Some of you may be wondering what exactly is chamber music? Chamber music is music that was written to be played in a palace chamber, or small hall.  When you talk about chamber music, you are not talking about large symphonies with 50 or 100 musicians.  Rather, you are talking about duos, quartets, quintets, octets, etc and small ensembles with no more than 20 musicians playing at one time (20 would be a large chamber ensemble!).  Solo music (such as the Beethoven's piano sonatas) does not fall within the parameters of chamber music.

Most well known composers wrote chamber music.  As a matter-of-fact, the chamber music compositions often out-number the orchestral compositions of any composer.  The average person thinks of chamber music as dinner music, music that's nice to hear, but isn't very exciting or interesting.  We see the string quartet in their stuffy old tuxedos playing stuffy old music.  But chamber music is as varied and exciting as any other musical form.  Chamber music can tell us stories, can make us cry, can annoy us and can excite us.

Listen to these samples of chamber music and see how very different chamber music can sound!

The Trout Quintet by Schubert.  Can you hear the trout swimming and jumping in the water?

Quartet in G Major, K. 387 by Mozart.  This is what most of us think of when we hear the term 'chamber music'.  Notice on the video that the musicians are performing in a small chamber.  Perhaps they are in a ball room or a large dining room.

Sicilienne by Faure.  This cello and piano duet is one of Faure's most noted pieces of music and is absolutely beautiful.

The Trio Sonata from Musical Offering BWV 1079 by J.S. Bach. In this recording you can hear the harpsichord playing - the instrument that for all intents and purposes was replaced by the modern day piano.  The harpsichord could not produce the loud, thunderous sound that a modern piano is capable of and therefore was the perfect keyboard instrument for the intimate sounds of chamber music.

Chamber music has the power to move us, to enrich our lives and to cause us to be better listeners.  You will often hear two instruments playing off of each other, like a question and answer session.  I believe it was the poet Goethe who said that chamber music (specifically the string quartet) is like listening to four rational people conversing.  And for the most part, this is a great way to think about chamber music.  Sometimes, the people can start to have an argument, but in the end, they always work out their differences!

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