Assignment #10 Reading Reflection

Assignment#10
Reading reflection
Title of the article: Self Esteem


1.According to the author, what are the possible cognitive benefits of music in early childhood education (p. 19)?
-Helping children acquire vocabulary

-Symbolic Understanding

-A sense of sequence

-Memory

-Auditory training

2.What are some important activities classroom teachers should be aware of in order to enhance young children’s self-esteem (p. 19)?
-Emphasizes problem solving skills

-Offer instruction about social behavior

-Display guidance techniques

-Teach self management strategies

-Encourage children's self-selected interests

IE: the clean-up song from Barney, to remember to pick up their toys

3.How so (according to the author) development of gross-motor skills and find-motor skills in musical activities can help enhance children’s self-esteem (p. 19)?

-Children who have trouble expressing themselves orally or who refuse to participate in art experiences may discover that they enjoy the physical and emotional aspects of musical activity.

-Children naturally develop an "I can do it" attitude

4.What are the guidelines for early childhood educators to implement music program in their classroom (p. 20-23)?

-Include movement activities in the music program

-Use children's names whenever possible

-Use musical terms to enhance conceptual development

-Musical greetings

-Request time

-Responding to rhythms

-Put the beat in your feet

-Dynamic changes

-Introduce music books

-Incorporate a variety of music in the classroom

My final Project Topic

I will be doing Australia for my final project

Journal Four

Journal #4

In this unit, we focused on listening activities in music. We practiced rondo form which has more than 2 sections. We learned about movement and binary forms of music. We learned about dotted notes, dynamics, and tempo. Also, we learned the high notes on the recorder, such as E'.

We listened to many different songs and accompanied those songs with dance. We moved to the notes that were being played in the songs The Hand Jive and Carnival of Animals. When we were learning about the change in pitch and music tempo we passed a ball around in a circle and to the change of pitch and tempo. Also, we incorporated dynamics by the sound of the music. When the music got loud or softer we would have to switch the directions of the ball. This unit showed how to incorporate dynamics and tempo methods in a song to make it more interesting to teach children. Children would love passing the ball faster when the song sped up! Knowledge of these concepts will help me become a better teacher overall! More knowledge the better! And all of these concepts will help me write better lesson plans and incorporate music into the everyday lives of my students. Music is very important in a classroom, not just in music class. I love learning how to teach various ways other than the direct style of teaching. My job as a teacher is to engage my students in learning and make it fun! Music is a key ingredient in that strategy because children love music!

Journal Three

Journal #3

In this unit we really focused on the recorder. We learned the fingerings for low C,D,E, and F on the reorder. It was very interesting to use my whole hand while playing the recorder!! My hands are small and I never thought I could do it! But I am learning. We learned more about the variety of instruments that we can incorporate in the classroom. Instruments that can produce melody, harmony, and rhythm such as jingle bells and drums can be used. We learned how to incorporate all different kinds of instruments into music for a story. We brought in plastic, paper, glass, and metal and turned those items into instruments for a Halloween story. We learned that children love making sounds and being involved in a story. As a class, we made sounds and played instruments for "Boo-Who baby" and the song "Nyangara, the Python". Playing instruments and making sounds during a story makes the story more interesting and fun for children. Some instruments that produce melody are the tone chimes, the recorder, and the piano. Instruments that produce rhythm are the cymbals, bongo drums, and rhythm sticks of course. Also, there are instruments that produce harmony such as the Q-chord, guitar, and the autoharp. We used to bongo drums for the "chief" sound in the song "Nyangara, the Python". We played our recorders to the melody of the song. It was fun to incorporate what we have read and learned in class to actual material. It is important to learn how to incorporate music into a lesson plan because music is a huge part of our culture. Also, music and musical instruments make lessons more exciting, intriguing and fun for children. It gains their attention and makes children want to learn about music. Students do not even realize that they are learning because they are having fun. Music was my favorite subject as a child. I think it is a good idea for students to play instruments in school because it lets children express their emotions and feelings. Elementary school children will be more interested in music and instrument if it is introduced early. It was difficult for me to learn how to play the recorder. My hands are very small. Therefore, it was hard for me to hold the recorder and play at the same time. I am learning slowly...and improving. The part I liked best was incorporating the instruments into the stories we read in class. This class has been very interesting and educational.

Assignment 9 Worksheet for Chapter 7

Question 1) Children move naturally. List and explain the guidelines and suggestions in the textbook that help teachers generate ideas for students to learn music through rhythmic bodily response activities. (page 234)
1-Encourage the child's natural inclination to move.
2-Encourage the natural use of speech, gesture, and body language to express thoughts and emotions.
3-Encourage the use of various levels of energy and timing in movement, speech, and gesture.
4-Allow children to explore and find ways to "live" particular elements of music in movement.
5-Identify elements, concepts, or other aspects of music that children should experience (like repetition)
6-Pay attention to children's individual responses. Sometimes a child's response is so imaginative that it is worth having the whole class try it.
7-Allow freedom and opportunities to express music with their bodies in spontaneous ways.
8-Encourage the completion of structured tasks that will, in turn, result in musical learning.
9-Choose music for rhythmic activities that cause children to respond instinctively by, for example, tapping a foot or bouncing and catching a ball.
10-Use a variety of music and begin early to find music you like and make a list of possible ways to move to it.

Question 2 What does locomotor skills mean? What is non-locomotor skill?

Locomotor skills: are those motor skills in which the feet move the body from one place to another. They include Walking, Running, Hopping, Jumping, Skipping,Galloping, Sliding (a sideways gallop) and Leaping.

Non-locomotor skills: movement is moving on the spot without going anywhere.
For example:
• Twisting - the rotation of a selected body part around its long axis
• Bending - moving a joint
• Swaying - fluidly and gradually shifting the center of gravity from one body part to another
• Stretching - moving body parts away from the center of gravity
• Turning - rotating the body along the long axis
• Swinging - rhythmical, smooth motion of a body part resembling a pendulum

Question 3
List the four stages in developing children's body awareness:
1) Movement as an expression of solving a problem
2) Movement as an expression of imagery
3) Movement with no external beat
4) Movement to a beat with a sense of timing

Question 4
What are the musical concepts that can be taught through movement activities?
1-Beat/meter
2-Fast, slow, getting faster, getting slower
3-Accents
4- Dynamics
5-Rhythm patterns
6-Melodic contour

Question 5
Choose one concept and summarize the lesson provided in the textbook telling how this particular musical concept is taught through the movement activity.
*I choose the musical concept: Accents- encourage students to use free creative movements to express accents as they occur in music.
I choose to summarize the suggestion lesson for grades K-3
-All of the students would sit in a circle and raise or lower their ball of yarn as the accents were played. Someone would be playing the rhythms on a drum.
-Also, download and play "Golliwog's Cakewalk". Ask the students to make tight fists, then open their hands suddenly as they hear accents. Lastly, have the children stand and relax their bodies, with arms hanging loosely at their sides, and tighten their muscles for accents.
--Accents are taught through tightening and loosening up with bodies and muscles.

Assignment #8 Worksheet for Chapter 5

Teaching Music through Playing Classroom Instruments

1.Classroom instruments function in a variety of ways. Please list some instruments that play (1) melodies, (2) harmony, and (3) rhythm.

(1)Melodic instruments—A melodic instrument is any instrument that can produce a melody.

List melodic instruments:
-piano

-Electronic Keyboards

-Melody Bells

-Step Bells

-Resonator Bells

-Xylophone

-Glockenspiel

-Metallophone

-Hand bells

-Tone Chimes

-Recorder

(2)Harmonic instruments—A harmonic instrument can play simple chords or drones as accompaniments to songs.

List harmonic instruments:

-Autoharp

-Q-Chord (digital song card guitar)

-Guitar

(3) Rhythmic instruments (percussion instruments)—Rhythmic instruments can play the rhythm to songs. They are divided into woods, metals, and skins.

List rhythmic instruments:

-Maracas

-Triangle

-Tambourine

-Rhythm Sticks

-Hard Drumbs

-Cymbals

2.What musical concepts could students gain through playing instruments?

Students could gain the musical concept of form, melody, pitch, keeping the steady beat, and also knowing the differences in dynamics.

3.Playing instrumental accompaniments adds interests and variety to many songs and contributes toward perceptual and motor skills. The choice and use of appropriate instruments in musical experiences can enrich the study of history, geography, culture and people, poetry, feelings and moods, and holidays. Please select one topic from above categories and design an activity using musical instruments.

-The teacher would read a story to her kindergarten class about the holiday Easter. The story would be about "Peter Cotton Tale". The story is about a rabbit that delivers decorated Easter eggs and colorful baskets to all of the children in the world. The teacher will sing the song first and then have the children sing it with her. The children will use small drums to tap the steady beat of the "Hippity-hoppity" part of the song when the Rabbit is hopping.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Hippity, hoppity,
Easter's on its way.

Bringing' every girl and boy Baskets full of Easter joy,
Things to make your Easter bright and gay.
He's got jellybeans for Tommy,
Colored eggs for sister Sue,
There's an orchid for your Mommy
And an Easter bonnet, too.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity,
Happy Easter day.

Here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Look at him stop, and listen to him say:
"Try to do the things you should."
Maybe if you're extra good,
He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way.

You'll wake up on Easter morning
And you'll know that he was there
When you find those chocolate bunnies
That he's hiding everywhere.

Oh! here comes Peter Cottontail,
Hopping' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity,
Happy Easter day.