Can you hear the wind? the rain? the leaves as they crunch under your feet? Can you make music with a rubber band? A pencil? A glass of water? What creates sound? How does water affect sound?
These questions and others were the basis of a 6-week long project in which our kindergarten students participated.
Using a multisensory approach, the children experimented with lots of different ways and materials to make new discoveries about sound.
We watched a video from “Stomp” and then the kindergarteners used their bodies to create sound and explore rhythm. When we put these movements together, we realized that we had created a musical composition.
For our kindergartner engineers, a variety of materials were provided and the children had an opportunity to create their own instrument. They created sound by shaking, stirring, strumming or rubbing. Using math, the children sorted, classified, and graphed the instruments they created.
We took a listening walk and quieted ourselves to hear the sounds that surrounded us in nature. We read the book, “Music is in Everything,” by Ziggy Marley and explored playing a variety of instruments to be the “rain,” “ocean”, “wind,” etc, as we listened to the song. It was during this exploration that the children began to mimic being a conductor.
We read the book, “BECAUSE” by Mo Willems and began to explore instruments that were used in a symphony. We invited a musician who played the Oboe to come and play for the kindergarten class.
We read the poems in the book, “Wild Symphony” by Dan Brown and the children learned to identify instruments and their sounds. The Timpani, Clarinet, Violin, Guiro, and Bassoon are a few of the instruments that they heard.
A storyteller visited and played her guitar and sang a song and we explored how music helps us to tell stories.
To Culminate this exciting study, the kindergarten children and their parents took a field trip to the Dominion Energy Center to hear Peter and the Wolf presented by the Richmond Symphony.
The children were excited to share that they were able to identify many of the instruments that were played.
Music is an important part of our kindergarten curriculum and has many benefits for children and their learning. Music engages executive functions such as working memory and planning. It helps children with reading and language acquisition as well as enhances mathematical learning.
