It Might Get Loud! Incorporating Music in the Classroom
- The Gardening Team
- Feb 20, 2020
- 3 min read
Hello Gardeners!
We know that listening to certain music encourages relaxation and helps us develop close listening skills, while playing music helps us collaborate, communicate, and gain confidence with our peers. Today on the blog, we are taking a deeper dive into some of those benefits and providing you with some easy ways to incorporate music + sound into your classroom!
You can learn a lot about a person by listening to their favorite song or hearing a song that makes them sad. For many music lovers, we associate the "big life moments" with songs that take us back to specific moments and emotions - good and bad.
Ask your students to pick a favorite song. Encourage them to look up the lyrics (if they don't already know them) and listen to the musical arrangements closely. Create a #ClassroomPlaylist and have each student speak a little about why the song they chose is their favorite.
This activity helps:
✓ Practice public speaking
✓ Encourage an emotional response to art
✓ Develop confidence in personal taste
Participating in group music is such a great way to get kids collaborating, listening to one another, and practicing impulse control. We have a fun #FlowerTambourine craft that your students can use in our special version of "Red Light, Green Light'!
Here's what you'll need:
2 paper plates
Paint
Paintbrushes
Beans, popcorn kernels, beads (anything that makes noise!)
A stapler
Have your students paint flowers on both of their paper plates - have them decorate the extra space however they like!
Once dry, staple the edges of the 2 plates together, leaving about a quarter of the circle unstapled. Place a handful of beans inside and finish stapling the plates together.
This is such a great craft if you are running low on supplies and there are so many ways to alter this craft to better fit your students! You can add bells to the edges using a hole punch and some string, you can add a strap to one side of the tambourine for an easy grip - the sky is the limit!
Once your students have their #FlowerTambourines, play this special version of #RedLightGreenLight to practice impulse control, while having fun!
It's simple, have one of your students stand at the front of the class, when he or she says, "Green Light!" have your students play their instruments as loud as they can, but when the student says, "Red Light!" the room has to immediately come to complete silence.
This activity helps:
✓ Practice following directions
✓ Develop impulse control
✓ Encourage self-expression through sound
Group drumming helps students find rhythm together, listen, and follow patterns, while feeling a sense of calm & stability through the steady beat.
Have your students sit in a circle and start with a simple pattern - such as PAT - PAT - REST. Then, without speaking, have the students send and receive patterns to with their classmates. For example, while the rest of the class continues the PAT - PAT - REST pattern, find a student in the circle, make eye contact with him or her, and once you have his or her attention, demonstrate the pattern you would like them to repeat - PAT - REST - CLAP. After they repeat your pattern, the sender returns to the original pattern and the receiver will find a new person in the circle and come up with their own pattern. You move around the circle until everyone has sent and received a pattern.
It may take a few tries for everyone to understand, but this activity is a great way to quiet down the classroom and get everyone focused.
This activity helps:
✓ Practice following patterns
✓ Aid focus and observation
✓ Develop non-verbal communication
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