Little Explorers - Music Exploration

 

In addition to the new "Imagination Station" program I started at the beginning of the year, I also started a second monthly early childhood program with a slightly different focus. I initially called it "STEM Storytime", thinking that if families weren't coming to regular storytime, maybe they would come to one that was a little different and that no other location was offering. "STEM" is an educational buzz-word most parents are familiar with, and my other area of expertise.

However, after four months it just wasn't really coming together - I was having trouble settling into a format and coming up with cohesive ideas, there was confusion as to what the program was and who it was for as our PR department didn't market it appropriately, and attendance wasn't great. I suspected that people just weren't interested in anything called storytime, because either they felt they could do that at home or they attended storytime at another branch. I decided to test the theory by re-naming the program "Little Explorers", which would also give me a little more wiggle-room in program design.

This week was my second program since the name change, and not only have I seen attendance increase, I was really happy with today's program. I decided to take advantage of the broader focus of "exploring" and take a break from STEM. I was initially thinking of "exploring the arts" and having activities to represent different art forms, including music, but ultimately decided to focus just on exploring music and save exploring art for another time.

I ended up following a similar format to storytime, alternating books with extension activities, with a craft and activity following. I started with a hello song, described what we would be exploring today, then read the first book, Music Is... by Brandon Stosuy and Amy Martin. 

This book is a great introduction to musical discussion. With sparse text and simple illustration, it presents various aspects of music - music can be loud or quiet, fast or slow, sad or happy - as well as introducing some musical terms such as a cappella, instrumental, and acoustic. A glossary is provided at the end as well. This is a boardbook, so would not work as well for a large audience.

After that I played a few clips of different pieces of music and we discussed how they made us feel, or what they made me think of. I didn't have time to put a great deal of thought into these, so it's a little random, but I did try to include a mix of classical and contemporary music. I;ve listed them below, followed by the answers the kids gave as to how it made them feel or what it made them think of, and anything else I added to the discussion in italics:

• Grieg's "Morning Mood" - spring, morning, sunrise
• Theme from Jaws - Baby Shark, scared, Jaws (from an older sibling), suspense
• "Happy" by Pharrell Williams - happy, dancing, fun
• Brahm's Lullaby - sleepy, bedtime, calm
• Beethoven's 5th Symphony - angry
• Baby Shark by Pink Fong - fun, silly
  
  

Next I read Music Is In Everything by Ziggy Marley and Ag Jatkowska (based on Ziggy Marley's song). Where the first book described different aspects of music, this book showed how music is bigger than the singing and instruments we typically thing of, and can be found everywhere - in the sound of the wind or rushing water, laughter, banging pots together, or homemade rice shakers (which tied in well with the craft at the end of the program).

This book is also great because it shows a multi-generational extended family coming together for food and music, with diverse ages, skin-tones, hair styles, clothing styles, and body types represented.

I followed this with a discussion of ways we could make music without using formal instruments: singing, clapping hand, slapping hands on thighs, smacking the floor, snapping fingers, patting tummies like a drum, stomping feet, clicking tongues... 

Our final book was one that I was familiar with from my time on the CLEL Bell Book Awards committee in 2021-2022. ROAR-chestra! A Wild Story of Musical Words by Robert Heidbreder and Duýan Petricic was a finalist that year as a high-quality children's book that provides excellent support of early literacy development in the "Sing" category of the five early literacy development practices (read, write, talk, sing, & play). Roar-chestra! is a very fun book that introduces several Italian musical words (allegro, adagio, staccato, glissando, dolce, fortissimo, and pianissimo) given by the conductor, and then explained with lyric text and demonstrated by a group of animals on the next spread. 

Prior to reading the book, I handed out instruments to all the kids, telling them that to save time I was going to hand them out and they had to just "take what you get and don't have a fit", but that afterward they would have plenty of time to explore all the instruments afterward. I explained we were going to explore different musical terms with the books, and that I would first read the term and description, and then they would act it out with their instruments. They did surprisingly well at stopping after each and letting me read the next one. Needless to say, "Fortissimo!" was their favorite 😉.

After we finished the book, I explained how to make the simple instrument craft (below) and released them to craft and/or explore the instruments, which was followed by a lovely cacophony that only a group of enthusiastic, but untrained children with a random assortment of percussion instruments  can make. We had drums, tambourines, cymbals, bells, hand-clappers, rhythm blocks, triangles, guiro/crow sounder/agogo blocks, maracas, and egg shakers. Which brings me to a question, just WHY are sets of musical instruments for children always ALL percussion?? I get not having any woodwinds, but why not some simple stringed instruments as well?

Craft Activity

I've done this simple noisemaker craft twice before for Noon Year's Eve parties, and it's always a hit. Simply put some dried beans or rice (a spoonful is enough) in the middle of a small paper plate, invert a second paper plate over it and staple, glue, or tape around the edges of the plates to seal them together. Kids can decorate with markers, crayons, or stickers as desired. Then, shake, shake, shake!

[I tried it with the stick handle the first time, but found it was more trouble that it was worth and omitted it this time.]

How It Went 

It started pouring rain about 15-20 minutes before the start of the program, which I thought sure would kill attendance. But I was very pleasantly surprised as families started trickling in, and a few more trickled in after I started. I ended up with a total of 14 kids and seven adults, which was the perfect amount. The kids seemed to really enjoy it, and participated and responded exactly as I'd hoped. It was loud and noisy as it always is when we get the instruments out, but the unbridled joy on their faces makes the temporary sensory overload worth it. Predictably, the drums, cymbals, and bells seemed to be the favorites.

What I Would Do Differently

I was really happy with how this program went, so I don't think I would really change much other than to put a little more thought into the playlist of music we sampled, though I think what I used was fine. For older kids, like elementary and up, I would have talked about different genres and played samples, but for preschool and under I think talking about how music made us feel or what it made us think of was more appropriate. One thing I would add is a simple rhythm exercise, where I would clap out a rhythm and they would repeat it back, either with clapping or with instruments. I meant to do that, and somehow completely forgot.