Students are often seen sitting behind a desk with a paper & pencil writing or taking a test. This is not the case in my room! Daily we are up moving to music showing beat, rhythm, and form. They love to show their creativity, personality, and imaginations by moving to music & expressing themselves.
"Music has just as much to do with movement and body as it does soul and intellect."-Esa-Pekka Salonen.
I teach K-5 music in a small public school, where before students did not have the chance to enjoy music and express themselves. Music class should be a place where students are up moving around and experiencing music with their entire body. My students love to move, but because of limited resources we have to move without any props.
My Project
We move to music to show the form, rhythm, beat etc. Due to limited resources my students must move with little to no props. Streamers, scarves, parachutes, and stretchy bands help the students to express themselves kinesthetically, learn about the elements of music, and physically and visually show what the music sounds like. My students love completing activities from the book Parachutes, Ribbons, Scarves Oh, My, but now have to do it with limited to no resources and often just pretend they have a prop in their hand. Having props will help my students to better understand abstract musical concepts and will help them express themselves in music class. These props also would be used to enhance our choral concerts by adding movement with the streamers and scarves.
Now we only have a limited amount of movement props that are damaged and torn or have to be shared with gym.
Most of the scarves have holes in them and there aren't enough for a whole class. Students have to sit and wait their turn or move without a prop. These props will allow my students to better experience music and the musical elements without having to wait or pretend.
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