Below we’ve posted a portion of an article written by Aaron Carasco, a Kindermusik educator with Studio3Music in Washington State:In Kindermusik, it’s rare to ever call hoops by their actual name; usually they’re mountains, meadows, or even puddles. In fact, last week my toddlers we’re ecstatic to “hop-a-doodle” around their “meadows.” With my early elementary kids, they loved playing the rhyming “Dr. Foster” game with their “puddles.” Even my preschoolers were looking forward every week to taking the “tricky trails” with their imaginary friends in our story “Josh and Katie.”
At the end of the week, I realized that a bunch of plastic 2 dimensional circles managed to not only thoroughly entertain all the children, but more importantly helped them learnimportant skills like how to jump on one foot, how to communicate with each other to go through “the tunnel”, and even how to work on their special awareness. All these important learning concepts were addressed by using something that costs around $5. We see children assign multiple identities to an object all the time. One day, a scarf is a butterfly wing, but the next, it’s a leaf. When children can use an object in their play in many different ways, they will pick it up again and again. Children can play with legos for years because it can be so many different things! When children are autonomous and own their learning, they not only enjoy learning more, they retain it better. This comes from choosing how to learn a certain concept. In fact, manipulatives in Kindermusik such as hoops, scarves, and streamers all have one thing in common: they are open-ended. The more open-ended an object is, the more roles it can have in play.–posted by Teacher Aaron, who still has his first set of legos!  For the full article, please click HERE.To see first hand how we use objects and instruments in Kindermusik class from babies to elementary aged children, contact us today to schedule a free preview class or give us a call (412) 344-0535.We’re so much more than just music!