What are Music and Movement Activities?
When you combine children with listening to music, dancing, marching and skipping, you have music and movement activities for preschool. Since music and movement involves listening and movement, it is also considered a sensory activity.
Physical Development
One of the great things about music and movement is that children can be physically active indoors. Physical activity helps children develop their muscles. It also helps children improve their coordination. Furthermore, children that are physically active learn what they can do with their bodies such as crawling, skipping, balancing, and stretching.
Language Development
Listening to music helps with the language development of children. One reason we know this is because researchers, while using CAT scans, have discovered that each component of music affects different parts of the brain. It has also been discovered that movement and rhythm stimulate the frontal lobes of the brain. This area of the brain plays an important role in children’s language development. When children are listening and moving to music, they are learning to move to the beat of the music. According to researcher Phyllis Weikert, the ability to keep a steady beat is tied to language development.
The ABC Song
In this video the children are singing the classic ABC Rock song by Greg and Steve. I think all of us probably first learned the alphabet by singing the ABCs.
My Thoughts
This video does an excellent job of demonstrating how a music and movement activity can be used to teach children. As the video proceeds, you can see how the children, each in his or her own way, keep the beat with body movements. Plus, it’s obvious that the children are energized and enjoying themselves.
Cognitive Development
The Steady Beat
A steady beat is repetitive and evenly spaced. Clapping or dancing to a steady beat can help children learn about math because it teaches them one-to-one correspondence. One-to-one correspondence is matching one thing to something else. Clapping one clap for each syllable is an example of this. Also, clapping to a steady beat teaches kids about the math concept of more. One way to demonstrate this is to clap a few times and then stop. Then say, “Alright, now let’s clap one more time!” After you clap one more time, you can clap two more times and so on.
Social-Emotional Development
In addition, music and movement helps children to grow both socially and emotionally. When kids participate in music and movement activities they have the chance to socialize with each other. Equally important, music and movement helps kids to gain confidence in their ability to socialize and make new friends. Also, while the kids dance and move together, they experience feelings of group unity. Lastly, music and movement gives children a chance to express themselves emotionally.
Important Information
It is crucial for parents and teachers to recognize the importance of play for healthy child development. For more information on this topic, as well as toy safety and appropriate toys for 3- and 4-year-olds, please visit the website for The National Association for the Education of Young Children, also known as NAEYC by using the following link. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/play/toys