Movement

A young child on the move is a great thing! Movement is not just important for helping children grow physically strong and healthy, but is also a key factor in their overall development. Movement builds self-confidence. Children feel competent, physically and emotionally, when they use their bodies to communicate and solve problems. Most importantly, movement can help children develop a close bond with their caregivers. A child's desire to be close to and connect with someone is often what motivates her to move.

All Fall Down

I love "All Fall Down" from Away We Go ". But we'll do it in just about every class level. From a learning perspective, it works for all age groups. And I love it because it is just plain fun.

On the off chance that you've never experienced the joy of playing "All Fall Down", let me fill in the blanks a bit. There are rules that everyone follows, so that makes it a game. Everyone gets a streamer. Parents, too. And there is music (naturally).

The music has three cues, and each cue requires a specific reaction from the players (these are the rules):

To start, everyone lies on the floor.
When you hear the crank, you get up.
When you hear the music, you dance.
When you hear the descending scale, you fall down.
Repeat until the music is over.

Then repeat again and again and again, until everyone is tired. You'll be physically tired before your child is tired of the game.

Why? Because they love this game. Here are some of the reasons I think they love it so much and will play it over and over again.

Reason One: The need to move is so powerful in the early years that any game or activity that encourages movement is going to be a hit. This particular game inspires total abandonment to movement- it is all about movement. Fast movement, slow movement, moving just your arms as the streamers fly all around you, smooth movements and jerky movements- it just doesn't matter so long as you are moving. No one feels like this game is too hard. No one feels like this game is too easy. So the success rate is 100%.

Reason Two: This game allows young children to address one of their bigger fears as new movers and walkers - falling down. Have you ever seen a child take a tumble, pop right back up, obviously unharmed, burst into tears and dash into mom's or dad's arms? They do that, not necessarily because they got hurt, but because the fall scared them.

A game where falling down is the ultimate goal is a great way to alleviate this fear. The children are in control of the falling; they learn that they can get back up again, that their brain is in control of their body throughout its range of motion. Learning to fall down helps to put the child in control of their body.

Reason Three: The game has a surprising intellectual element. There are no language cues that signal what to do. The child simply learns to recognize the sound of the descending scale pattern and understand that means it's time to fall down.

Initially, they learn by watching the grownups. I am quite sure they learn the musical cue, because after three weeks of playing "All Fall Down" in class the children are now anticipating it; they know when it's coming and get ready. A pre-schooler in "Imagine That!" dashed by me today and said "It's coming Miss Allison!!!" and she was dead on. (She was thrilled to be right- such success!) And they know how long they need to lie on the floor (it's different each time) and they don't move until they hear that crank. Which is connected to.

Reason Four: This game teaches self-control - how to wait, how to follow instructions, how to share the space with a dozen other moving bodies and not crash into them. It teaches deliberate listening and deliberate action. It is a game that is full of purpose.

It is so full of purpose that it's easy to forget the original intent of the activity is to teach the musical concepts of high and low. And it does that beautifully as well.

-posted Originally by Miss Allison from Studio 3, who wants you to head into the living room and clear the furniture and enjoy a few moments of unconstrained, falling down joy.

                              Be Our Guest -

A Royal Princess Party

Experience the magic and wonder of a princess music & dance party including a princess fashion show, light snacks, face painting and royal take-home treats for our little majesties.
Costumes are a must - or just wear your fancy clothes!
Queens and Kings are welcome to join in the fashion show.
This will definitely be a morning to remember!


Saturday, April 10th 10:30 - 11:30 am
The New Day Center for the Arts 55th&Foster

RSVP: 503-708-2827 / jansonfamily@spiritone.com

Ages: Princesses 2 and up.
Must be accompanied by a King or Queen.
The cost of our Royal Princess Party is $5 per child. Adults free.


Presented by Kindermusik with Angie
kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net; kindermusikwithangie.blogspot.com

Unstructured Play:

Research suggests that growing numbers of parents believe unstructured play isn't particularly important. Child-development specialists, however, describe unstructured play as essential to children's growth and crucial in cultivating creativity and imagination. Unstructured play also has a role in expanding intellectual, emotional, and social skills. "In other words, unstructured child's play-the kind with no rules, few gizmos and little or no adult direction-packs a powerful developmental wallop" MacPherson 2002

Freeze Dance!

We've all seen energy build up in toddlers, preschoolers, or big kids. But you can usually redirect this energy with a fun little game. At the same time, you'll be helping to develop your child's physical control and something called "inhibitory control," or his or her ability to start and stop behaviors. Sometimes, all you need to do is turn on some music and play Freeze Dance!

 

All you need to do is:

• Get some lively music going.
• Dance around with your child or encourage him or her to dance -- let your child burn off some of that energy!
• Every so often, quickly pause the recording -- everyone (including you) should immediately freeze!
• To spice things up, after each freeze you can call out a new dance word like twirl, twist, leap, wiggle, or turn.
• Now start dancing like that until it's time to pause the music and freeze again.

Don't have any music handy? No problem! Sing a song or bang a funky rhythm on something you have lying around the house. Stop at random times, just like you were pausing the music.

Redirecting your child's energy into a fun game or activity can work like a charm. Try it next time you see your little one developing a case of ants in the pants

Dance, Dance, Dance

Put on your favorite tunes, hold your baby in your arms, grab her rattle, and shimmy round the room. If your "baby" is old enough to do her own dancing, hold hands and boogie together. Remember, the last dance is always a slow one: go cheek-to-cheek, and you might even get her to nap.

Visual Rhythm

Rhythm patterns are sequences. Help your preschooler discover vusual sequences using pattern blocks purchased at a toy store or educational supply house. Keep the blocks in a basket on the kitchen counter and let your child make fun designs while you get dinner. For the toddler who'd rather bang blocks together, see if you can coax him into a rhythmic beat: tap, tap, tappy-tap!

Sense of Balance

As you rock from center to one side then the other or forward and backward, there is an experience of alternating between being on-balance and off-balance. This gentle motion stimulates the vestibular system, helping children develop an improved sense of balance.

The Movement-Vision-Reading Connection

"Our visual sense functions...when our eyes are actively moving..., when the body and head move, the vestibular sytem is activated, and the eye muscles strenghten as they move in response. The more the eyes move, the more the muscles of both eyes work together." Later on, this "eye-teaming" will enable these now-toddlers to focus as well as to track and to conentrate as they learn to read in school. Smart Moves, by Carla Hannaford

Stop and Go

Music is sound and movement, and it is silence and stillness. Just as we experience sculpture in terms of where it begins and ends in space, we experience music in terms of where it begins and ends in time that surrounds it.

Kindermusik Teacher
503-708-2827
web site: http://www.kindermusikwithangie.kindermusik.net/
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