November 12 ~ Free Webinar for Early Childhood Educators

Using Music to Boost Infant and Toddler Development

Kindermusik International partners with Hatch Early Learning to offer this Free Webinar, “Using Music to Boost Infant and Toddler Development.” Music is the one constant in an infant’s everyday life. All over the world, parents are bonding with their babies through musical sounds and rhythmic movement. Parents know instinctively what scientists have now proven: infants thrive on music.

Join us on November 12th as we team up with Hatch Early Learning to bring you a free webinar that will detail how and why music and movement provide the best learning vehicles for early childhood development (newborn to age 3). Kindermusik International’s Director of Professional Development, Betsy Flanagan, will lead the webinar.

  • What You’ll Learn
    • How immersive musical experiences create and strengthen an infant’s neural pathways
    • Ways to create special bonding moments with newborn to age 3 learners
    • Specific techniques that have worked in Early Head Start programs
    • Active music making ideas that “light up” a baby’s entire brain

Register for this FREE Webinar on November 12 at 2pm EST.

If you’re unable to attend this webinar live, that’s no problem! Be sure to register and we will send you a link to our on-demand portal to view a recording of the live event.

4 Reasons Why the Creative Arts Matter in Early Childhood Education

4 reasons why Creative Arts Matter in Early Childhood EducationYoung children love music, dancing, painting, playing, and other creative ways to express themselves and make sense of the world around them. However, as if those reasons weren’t enough to include things like art and music in early childhood education, research indicates that the arts, including music education for kids, significantly impacts cognitive development, increases self-esteem, and actively engages everyone in learning—children, parents, and teachers!
We believe that music is the best vehicle for early childhood learning. We want to empower our Educators, parents, and teachers to instill a lifelong love of music and learning in their children.

4 Reasons to Include the Arts in Early Childhood Education

  1. The creative arts engage children through multi-sensory learning.

    Multisensory Learning - Creative Arts in Early Childhood EducationChildren thrive on (and naturally respond to!) multi-sensory learning opportunities, such as music and the visual arts. Each of our five senses (sight, smell, sound, touch, taste) activates specific neurons in the brain. For young children, multi-sensory activities provide more learning opportunities than single-sensory activities because more of the brain becomes involved in the lesson. For example in a music class, children experience multi-sensory learning when they listen to and imitate animal sounds vocally or with an instrument, see the animals in the story, and then move around like them. Art activities can bring in the sense of smell and taste through edible art works, such as creating rainbows out of colored cereal or even using edible finger paints for the youngest learners. Plus, experiences that integrate several senses simultaneously are responsible for lasting impressions and greater retention.

  2. Musical activities stimulate development in every area of the brain.

    While multi-sensory learning engages children and provides greater retention, music education for children—in particular—provides research-proven cognitive benefits. Incorporating music and movement into a child’s learning routine stimulates all areas of the brain, including: vision, balance, hearing, speech, behavior, sensation, cognition, movement, and emotion. Take a look at the mental benefits of playing music: [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0JKCYZ8hng#t=76[/youtube]

  3. Art and music classes teach children to love learning and school.

    Teachers and parents agree. We all want children to love learning and school. After all, it makes those early morning wake-up calls and afternoon lunch slumps a little bit easier. When asked: “What was your favorite thing about school today,” art and music consistently rank high on the list for young children. Why? It’s fun! As children grow beyond the early years, they carry that love of learning and school into the upper elementary years and beyond. Plus, the lessons learned in music classes can be applied throughout the day. Children who actively participate in playing music together learn teamwork, sharing, listening to and incorporating the ideas of others–and in turn learning the value of their own ideas, too! Plus, musical activities can help children learn self-regulation, the ability to regulate thoughts, feelings, and actions. All together, these skills translate into being ready to learn and success in school.

  4. Grown-ups love the arts, too.

    While we spend much time thinking about children in early childhood education (of course!), the grown-ups remain equally important. After all, children can tell when educators enjoy teaching. When teachers laugh and smile during the lesson, they model for students that learning is fun…and it is! For parents, the arts provide an easy way to support children’s education and get actively involved. Kindermusik Educators have fun in their early childhood programsThis could mean listening intently as a child explains the colors of the rainbow on a painting brought home from school and then finding the perfect spot on the refrigerator to hang it. Or it can mean singing and dancing to the songs from music class or pretending to be favorite characters in the book from circle time.

Music In the Classroom

In our Preschool curriculum (ABC Music & Me supplemental curriculum for ages birth to early elementary), children and teachers sing and play instruments, participate in dance and creative movement activities, engage in vocal and pretend play, and receive all of the benefits of the creative arts.
KindermusikPresents_ABCMusicAndMe_AGlobalEarlyChildhoodCurriculum[1]Plus, teachers and parents love Kindermusik. It’s easy to use with minimal planning and intentionally provides a method for teachers to participate, notice, and observe the class. Teachers can just pop in the hosted audio and a trained Kindermusik educator comes alive in their classroom through the guided activities.
ABC Music & Me brings the learning home with materials that provide a peek into the classroom with “teachable moment” extensions and favorite songs, stories, and activities from class.

Want to Learn More? Request a Demo: abcinfo@kindermusik.com

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer living in Atlanta, Georgia.

Putting the Arts in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics

Music and Math share more in common than just the letter M. In an earlier post, we highlighted three of the ways music supports math learning—counting, spatial awareness, and pattern recognition. Learning the building blocks of math—such as size, measurement, pattern recognition, and counting by rote—start at birth–and the arts naturally engage young children in the learning.

From STEM to STEAM

In recent years, many teachers, schools, and entire districts began focusing on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) classes to help prepare children for living and working in our increasingly technology-centered world. However, many educators see the need to add the “Arts” into the equation. (Of course, we absolutely agree!) STEAM integrates and uses the arts in the STEM curriculum to help children express—and understand—STEM concepts. Children naturally learn by using their whole bodies and all of their senses. Experiencing concepts such as size by pretending to move like an elephant, mouse, or giraffe makes a complicated concept three-dimensional. So, children can feel it, relate to it, and understand it!
The National Park for the Performing Arts, Wolf Trap, recently launched an Early Childhood STEM Learning Through the Arts initiative. Through teacher training and research, Wolf Trap is helping to strengthen the understanding of how the arts can (and should) be used in early childhood education to teach science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFdiLWfbVSA[/youtube]

Using music to express STEM concepts

Music’s proven connections to math can support young children’s math development. For example, children hear, feel, and experience the patterns in music when swaying to a legato section or bouncing to a staccato section or when they dance and sing a song with a verse then a chorus then a verse then a chorus. Try these Kindermusik@Home activities for kids that use music to help them experience patterns.

For babies:

Peas & Carrots Kindermusik@HomeKitchen Dance: Something about the kitchen brings out the dancer in all of us. Moving with a baby is so important. So put on any music you like and get moving! Plus, dancing to music can help even babies hear, feel, and experience patterns.
 
 
For toddlers:
Kindermusik@Home Jelly in the BowlThe Jelly in the Bowl:

A kid-favorite, “Jelly in the Bowl” is easy to remember, easy to do, and hard to resist. After a few times, children will understand the pattern of the song and start giggling right before favorite parts.
 
 
 
For preschoolers:
Jumping beans Kindermusik@HomeQuarter Notes & Quarter Rests:  Get your listening ears on, because this game will introduce children to the sound of a quarter note and the “no-sound” of a quarter rest . . . then test children’s ears on how well they recognize them when they’re assembled in patterns!

ABCMMEINTL_LOGO_LiteracyLanguage_OneLineOur early childhood curriculum, ABC Music & Me, uses music and movement as a fun, engaging, and natural way for children to learn. Want to learn more about using music to support STEM learning (and early literacy and language!) in early childhood education? Email us info@abcmusicandme.com. 

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, long-time supporter and believer in the power of the arts.

Where are the future scientists? In a music class for kids!

Future scientist?
Future scientist?

At first glance, music classes for kids might not seem like the best place to look for future scientists, technology experts, engineers, or mathematicians. Well, look again! New research indicates that an early childhood music class is exactly where we should look.
Researchers from Michigan State University recently published a study that found that 93 percent of STEM graduates (college students who majored in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) reported musical training as a child compared to only 34 percent of the average adult. STEM graduates also showed an increased involvement in the visual arts, acting, dance, and creative writing.

Benefits of music for children continue through adulthood

“The most interesting finding was the importance of sustained participation in those activities,” said Rex LaMore, director of MSU’s Center for Community and Economic Development, in a press release. “If you started as a young child and continued in your adult years, you’re more likely to be an inventor as measured by the number of patents generated, businesses formed or articles published. And that was something we were surprised to discover.”
According to the research team, participation in the arts, such as music classes for kids, encourages “out-of-the-box thinking.” The STEM graduates reported using those skills they learned in music or art classes—such as analogies, playing, and imagination—to solve complex scientific problems.

Music and learning in early childhood education

3_why_music_rectangle_yellowIn Kindermusik, we know children also use exploration and problem solving to learn what an object does and how it works. We call that process epistemic play. In our early childhood curriculum, we provide many opportunities for children to explore objects in order to better understand how they work. While trying out all the ways to tap, shake, or roll an instrument or stomp, tap, tiptoe our feet, children gain a foundational understanding of how things work. Plus, all this epistemic play supports a child’s overall cognitive development.

Learn more about using music in the early childhood classroom to support the cognitive development in children, including early math, science, literacy, and language skills.

To experience the benefits of music with your child, find a local Kindermusik educator in your area. 

3 “play-filled” recycling activities for kids

18 mo old Will recycling“It will be a wasteland if we don’t recycle,” stated a four-year-old child in a recent preschool study. Wow! Teaching children never stops but neither does learning from children.
Although we are nearing the end of the United Nations Decade for Sustainability (2005-2014), our commitment to sustainability remains intact. It’s why we strive to find ways to make and deliver our product that decreases our carbon footprint. It’s also why we continue to provide resources and ideas–such as recycling activities for kids–for educators and parents to use when teaching children about the environment and our impact on it. After all, investing in a greener world is also an investment in our world’s children.

Using play to teach sustainability for kids

Of course, in early childhood education, making a personal connection and involving the whole child in the process deepens the understanding.  One recent study looked at different ways to engage children in an early childhood education curriculum that taught sustainability. In the study, the preschool teacher created a recycling “center” for children. At the center, children could sort various items into a recycling bin, the trash, or a compost bucket. The teacher offered this center three times in three different ways:

  1. Modeled play: In the first recycling activity for kids, the teacher showed the children how to look for the triangle on plastic containers and bottles. Using a chart, she indicated whether or not the item could be recycled.
  2. Open-ended play: In the second recycling activity for kids offered on a different day, the teacher let the children problem solve on their own.
  3. Purposeful-play: In the final recycling activity for kids, the teacher and children engaged together in conversations about and interaction with the materials, including the purpose behind the activity. The teacher also made connections between the activity in the classroom and how this could look in their homes and communities.

Recycling activities for kids at home

This small study about sustainability for kids can be replicated at home and in classrooms. To a child, every moment is a teachable moment—even taking out the trash. Kindermusik Green - SustainabilityOne of the goals of the United Nations Decade for Sustainability is “to motivate and empower learners to change their behavior and take action for sustainable development.” At Kindermusik, we can think of no better way than to start by actively engaging our children in the process. Together, we can create a greener world.

Learn more about Kindermusik’s commitment to sustainability.

 
 

Teacher Training is the Best Investment

That’s a bold claim, but it’s true.  The best investment all educators or teachers can make is to actively take advantage of ways to constantly improve themselves and to be open to new possibilities.  Teacher training matters – it enhances job satisfaction and quality of teaching.
Weston chime ball resizeAnd that’s why Kindermusik educators are some of the best teachers on the planet.  They love their job; they’re thrilled to be in the classroom; and they are required to complete regular professional development goals each and every year.  Their professional development helps them grow in areas like early childhood professional development, business and marketing skills, classroom management, and more masterful teaching of the world’s best early childhood curriculum – Kindermusik!
If you love teaching children, we’d love to encourage you to consider pursuing the opportunity to teach Kindermusik.  You can choose two different paths – teaching for yourself or teaching for an established Kindermusik program.  Learn more HERE.

Read more… Kindermusik Educators: Who They Are and How We Train Them

Kindermusik Classes - Enroll Now - For a Child's Brain, Body, Heart & SoulAnd if you’re a parent interested in enhancing your child’s musical development and inspiring a lifelong love of music, we invite you to try a free preview class and see just why we think our Kindermusik educators are head and shoulders above the rest!
 

Investing in children through parental involvement in early childhood education

Kindermusik quote editedWe talk a lot about early childhood education around here. We know—as Ed Markey said: “Education is not only a ladder of opportunity, but it is also an investment in our future.” Children, especially those most at-risk students, receive even more benefits from participating in an early childhood curriculum that prepares them for a lifetime of learning!
In a perfect world, early childhood education involves three key ingredients: the child, the teacher, and family involvement in education. Without all three, our investment in early childhood education—and the child—does not yield the biggest returns—measurable and immeasurable.
Of course, a parent is a child’s first and most important teacher. We say that time and time again. When a child attends a preschool, daycare, or other learning environment outside the home, family involvement in education remains a pivotal part of the process. While teachers, administrators, and parents share the common bond of the child, some programs more successfully manage to engage this learning community by promoting respectful and reciprocal caring relationships. What can we learn from those who do it really well?

Getting high marks in family involvement in education

Anne Douglass, PhD., at the University of Massachusetts in Boston wanted to find the

(Source: AParentinSilverspring.com/)
(Source: AParentinSilverspring.com/)

answer. She recently researched ways to increase parental involvement in early childhood education in a daycare or preschool setting. She wanted to answer:

  1. What accounts for the gap between the desire of the early childhood education programs to partner with families and actual practices with families?
  2. What do teachers of early childhood curriculum need to effectively partner with families?
  3. What factors promote or impede the implementation of family support and engagement strategies?

In this small study, Douglass compared the teachers and parents, structures, and processes within four early childhood education programs: two with “high quality” family involvement and two with “low quality.”  She found two distinctive characteristics of successful preschools, Head Start programs, and daycares with parent involvement in early childhood education:

  1. Administrators modeled caring professional relationships and shared power within the school, which included leadership opportunities for classroom teachers, training, and staff appreciation.
  2. The preschool utilized specific structures to promote caring and shared power, including teacher supervision that intentionally involved discussing multiple perspectives in solving a problem.

An early childhood curriculum that increases parental involvement in early childhood education

ABCMMEINTL_LOGO_LiteracyLanguage_OneLineABC Music & Me uses music and movement to teach young children early literacy and language, social and emotional skills, and other vital skills proven to help set a child up for success. We intentionally created ABC Music & Me to include resources for teachers and parents that increase family involvement in education. As Douglass’s study indicates, teacher training impacts not only a teacher’s ability in the classroom but also the engagement of children’s parents. Our early childhood curriculum includes teacher training choices from half-day trainings to demonstration DVDs. We also include access to materials for families to use together at home that supports both the classroom learning and a parent’s role as a child’s first and best teacher.

For more information about bringing this early childhood curriculum to your preschool, Head Start program, or daycare, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

15 Ways Kindermusik Prepares Your Child for School

Development of the BrainOne of the reasons we’re fond of saying that Kindermusik is so much more than just music is because Kindermusik benefits your child in so many more ways other than just musically.  In fact, keeping your child enrolled in Kindermusik classes is one of the very best things you can do to help your child be prepared for – and succeed in! – school.

Here are 15 ways that Kindermusik’s early childhood music and movement curriculum prepares your child to be successful in school:

1. Kindermusik develops the whole child by supporting all areas of development – musical, language, emotional, physical, social, and cognitive development.
2.  Kindermusik teaches your child to be a problem-solver.
3.  Kindermusik encourages your child to think creatively.
4.  Kindermusik gives your child practice in working cooperatively with his/her peers.
5.  Kindermusik builds the spatial-temporal and reasoning skills required for math, science, and engineering.
6.  Kindermusik develops the social and emotional skills that are essential factors in school readiness.
7.  Kindermusik helps children gain the phonological processing, spoken language, and comprehension skills that are foundational to literacy.
8.  Kindermusik teaches children the rhymes that help them become better readers.  (according to reading expert Mem Fox)
9.  Kindermusik activities help brain cells make the connections needed for nearly every kind of intelligence.
10.  Kindermusik teaches children music through the best music curriculum on the planet, and science and research continue to support the huge and lasting benefits of early childhood music study.
11.  Kindermusik gives children a pressure-free environment in which to practice and enhance their budding musical skills.  (A new study shows that music practice can actually sharpen the brain.)
12.  Kindermusik gives children the opportunity to form early and positive student-teacher relationships where they learn to listen and respect an adult other than their special adults at home.
13.  Kindermusik is focused on process, not performance, thereby nurturing a child’s self-confidence and desire to try new things.
14.  Kindermusik gradually increases your child’s independence as he/she gets older so that he can more successfully transition into the school environment.
15.  Kindermusik classes inspire a lifelong love of not just music, but also a lifelong love of learning.  Any child who loves to learn is sure to be successful in school!

Kindermusik Classes - Enroll Now - For a Child's Brain, Body, Heart & Soul

We invite you to see for yourself how Kindermusik will prepare your child for school, starting with a FREE Preview class on us!

 

You might have a Kindermusik kid if…

5 ways to support ELL studentsTeachers are always observing their students.  Here at Kindermusik International, we have a sneaking suspicion that you might have noticed something a little different, a little special, about some of the students in your class…
We think we might know the secret – those stand-out students probably have something in common… they’ve all been in Kindermusik! 
So how can you know for sure?  Here are six clues that usually give it away.

You might have a Kindermusik kid in your classroom if you notice a student who…

… socializes well with his/her classmates
… demonstrates good coordination and balance while moving
… is confident, happy, and emotionally secure
… expresses him/herself well verbally
… excels academically, thinks creatively, and has a great imagination
… loves anything and everything musical!
Kindermusik Baby Music Class - Self Expression Through MusicIf you’ve ever wondered how you could help better prepare a child for school by combining your love of teaching, love of children, and love of music, consider becoming a Kindermusik educator! As the world’s best early childhood music and movement curriculum, Kindermusik is your chance to provide a child with a solid educational basis for future learning and a lifelong love of music.

To learn more about how you can turn music into smiles and give kids a head start in school and in life through early childhood music education, visit the Kindermusik website and click on the “Teach Kindermusik” tab.

4 reasons why music matters in early childhood education

ABC Music & Me Special Education Curriculum - Sycamore Creek Elementary

Music belongs in our schools. Of course, we know we are preaching to the choir (figuratively and literally!). In the movie, Mr. Holland’s Opus, music teacher Glenn Holland said: “You can cut the arts as much as you want…sooner or later, these kids aren’t going to have anything to read or write about.”

ABC Music & Me Special Education Curriculum - Sycamore Creek ElementaryIt’s true. Music and the arts speak to us and for us in profound and immeasurable ways. When used as part of an elementary school curriculum, early childhood music can also impact the measurable side of education, including early literacy and language acquisition. In our early childhood curriculum, ABC Music & Me, children experienced a 32 percent literacy gain after participating in our music education classes.

4 more reasons why music matters in early childhood education and belongs in our schools

1. Early childhood music classes teach children to identify and discriminate between sounds—and focus on sounds that matter most. During the school years, children will spend an estimated 50 to 75 percent of classroom time listening to the teacher, other students, or to media. That doesn’t mean the rest of the classroom noises automatically cease. Little fingers will still tap on the desk, children’s laughter from recess outside will still be heard, students will still whisper to each other, and shuffling feet will still walk through the hall. Developing strong active listening skills, prepares young children to focus on the lesson at hand rather than the other distracting noises. Our early childhood curriculum, ABC Music & Me, gives young children many opportunities to develop those strong active listening skills. In one 30-minute class, children may listen intently for the sounds of a specific instrument in a classical piece, use instruments to practice the difference between Staccato (short) and Legato (long) sounds, or even move their bodies fast or slow in response to what they hear in the music.

2. Our brains process music similarly to how we process language. To become successful readers, young children need to understand that words—like music—are made up of discrete sounds. Later they use that knowledge of sounds to read and build words. Research shows that children with these skills are more successful learning to read than others. Kindermusik’s early childhood music classes provide many opportunities for children to discriminate similarities and differences in sound. So, while children gain musical skills in class, they also make gain in phonological awareness and reading development.

3. Music teaches young children self-regulation skills. Self-regulation is the ability to control our thoughts, feelings, and actions. When used as part of an early childhood curriculum, music (and movement) can help children learn to tell their bodies what to do, when to stop, when to go, and when to move to another activity. So, when children participate in a circle dance, transition from one activity to another, and even share instruments, children are learning and practicing self-regulation skills. Those same skills will help children pay attention in school, act and behave appropriately, and transition from one activity to another.

4. Participating in early childhood music classes teaches young children how to learn. In our childcare curriculum, ABC Music & Me, an educator guides the class towards a learning objective with the children as active participants in the learning process. Providing children with ample time to reflect, compare, make choices, express opinions and preferences, and engage in problem-solving activities together teaches children not only the lesson focus but it teaches them how to learn.

Early childhood curriculum uses the power of music

Early Literacy Curriculum with Research-Proven Results

Yes, music belongs in our children’s lives. And, yes, music belongs in our schools. Our early childhood curriculum, ABC Music & Me, uses the latest research on how children learn as well as the proven cognitive benefits of music to support the growth of phonological awareness, focused listening skills, self-control, early language and literacy skills, and more. Plus, our childcare curriculum intentionally creates lessons that give teachers the opportunity to notice, observe, and include children of all abilities in a group learning environment.

To learn more about bringing ABC Music & Me (and the power of music!) to your preschool, elementary school, or daycare, email us at info@abcmusicandme.com.

Or, if you are at the NAEYC’s 2013 Annual Conference and Expo this week, stop by our Booth (#2712)!