Our PreSchool Blog

Ms. Joanie joined our K Prep classroom today for a special Music Enrichment class! She brought her rhythm sticks and the children used them to create spooky halloween sounds! Incorporating music into the Early Childhood classroom has a variety of benefits:

• It provides means to communicate
• An opportunity to express emotions
• Develops social skills
• Provides opportunities to participate in groups
• Enhances self‐concept and self confidence
• Enhances sensorial skills
• Refines listening skills
• Awareness of movement and body positions
• Enhances creativity and imagination
• Learn new words and concepts
• Explore cause and effect
• Develop large motor skills
• Improves balance and coordination
• Helps develop fine motor skills

and of course……..it’s fun!!!

Ms. Joanie introduced the students to the percussion family in music this week and brought her set of desktop bells to share with us. The children had the opportunity to compose their own original piece and share it with the class!

While learning about the letter “x”, we decided since we made a xylophone out of the letter “x”, we would actually learn about the xylophone and how to play music with it! We sang different songs, such as, “Row Row Row Your Boat” and “Do You Know the Muffin Man?” and our friends practiced playing along with the xylophone. Since we didn’t have enough xylophones for all of our friends to play at once, we took turns and those who weren’t playing a xylophone got to shake a maraca. We were just like a real band! Ms. Joanie would have been so proud 🙂

We were so excited to see Ms Joanie today for the first time this year!  She brought along some of her instruments and a new song about the ocean.  What a perfect way to start our study of the Great Barrier Reef!

Children who grow up hearing music, singing songs, and moving to the beat are enjoying what experts call “a rich sensory environment.” That’s just a fancy way of saying they’re exposed to a wide variety of tastes, smells, textures, colors, and sounds. And researchers believe this forges more pathways between the cells in their brains.

Musical experiences are an important way to help create these pathways, also called neural connections. And while listening to music is certainly key to creating them, it’s when children actively participate in music that they make the strongest connections.

Research shows that kids who are actively involved in music (who play it or sing it regularly):

• do better in reading and math when they start school
• are better able to focus and control their bodies
• play better with others and have higher self-esteem