Music sparks Imagination

We used the book "Once Upon an Ordinary School Day" by Colin McNaughton to support our learning. 

The story opened a path to thinking about imagination and creativity. The following phrases from the story inspired the children: "I want you to listen to some music and I want you to let the music make pictures in your heads" and "It was as if a dam had burst in his head and words just came flooding out..." 

As we are approaching our summative activity where the children will be sharing their knowledge on sound, we listened to classical music and each of them took a turn to share an idea of what the music/sound made them think about or feel. In the end, the children latched on and expanded on each others' ideas and composed a story inspired by Vivaldi's "Four Seasons (Spring)". 

Story: 

Zoe: "One morning, I was eating breakfast. I was enjoying my oatmeal." 

Keira: "After I finished my breakfast, I walked towards my playroom. While I was playing, a blue flower that bloomed outside my window caught my attention. Shortly after, I noticed a purple flower too." 

Theo: "I was looking at the blue flower and the petals and suddenly, I couldn't believe my eyes, but right there, next to my window, there was a deer." 

Louis: " The wind started blowing and it blew the blue flower away." 

Serena: "The blue flower flew up in the air and it landed on the wood chips at the playground." 

Theo: "People were playing and didn't notice the flower. They were stepping on it." 

Keira: "A little boy noticed the squished flower. He picked it up and found a spot to plant it in the dirt." 

Serena: "A new flower bloomed." 

Zoe: "It was growing taller and taller and more beautiful." 

Theo: "It grew so beautiful, but the petals started falling off. The flower died." 

And that was the end of our story. The children carefully listened to the music and I observed that when the tempo increased, the characters became more elaborate and the ordinary scenes became more intense. For example, it occurred when the children wrote the scenes with the people stepping over the flower, and the deer appearing in the image.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a holiday when everyone gets to spend time with their loved ones and share things that they are thankful for. 

Instruments make sounds that captivate us.

While listening for sounds in our immediate environment, Theo identified the sound of a tambourine echoing from the cubbies. It was the Water group, making their own instruments and exploring sounds with them. 

Anila "I want to make an instrument." 

Triggered by the children's interest, we looked at pictures of different instruments from all over the world and played a game where the children had to listen to the instruments and identify them.

In the pictures attached, you can see the instruments we worked on. 

Next week, we will be finishing decorating and we will gather together to try them out. 

Listen...can you hear that sound?

Our walk in the forest triggered the children's interest in squirrels and the sounds they make when eating and climbing trees. 

The folk song "Hop old squirrel" guided our learning. The song is about a squirrel hopping and listening. We discussed the features of squirrels and also the different things squirrels could listen for. 

The children noticed that sometimes when they see squirrels outdoors, they see them stop in their tracks and look around. 

Theo "Maybe that's when they listen. They stop to hear better." 

The children drew pictures of squirrels and made a squirrel out of foam shapes to share their knowledge and the song with the others. This will allow them to continue exploring and to connect their learning with their peers and their families. 

Next week we will be talking about instruments and we will be making our own to create different sounds.

Elliot: "Do you hear that sound?"

There are different ways of knowing that it is Fall; either you know because of the date in the calendar or because you heard it on the radio.
Today, we were reminded of that through a child's discovery.

The four groups gathered together today to go on a walk in the forest. When we reached the meadow, Kathryn gathered the children and talked about the different sounds we hear in the forest.
On our way back, some children were running, while others were strolling along.
The group in the back was quiet, walking slowly towards the school. 

Halfway there, Elliot asked me a question:




Elliot: "Anamaria, did you hear that?"
Anamaria: "The children running and laughing?"
Elliot: "No. Listen carefully."
Anamaria: "The birds chirping?"
Elliot: "No, me. I'm stepping on these leaves. Listen to the sound it makes. Crunch, crunch, crunch..."






With a big smile on his face, Elliot ran back and forth through the blanket of leaves that was covering the path.

Today, I learned...I learned that Fall comes with a sound. A sound of crunching leaves!

Where is the sound coming from?

How do we hear Sound?

To provoke a reaction to this question, we played a game. The children's task was to identify which direction the sound is coming from while blindfold.









The children enjoyed this games and some were very brave, enough to hear and walk towards the sound right away, while others were hesitant and took more time to start moving their bodies around the room.









We discussed the importance of hearing as well as seeing. We connect the sounds that we hear to what we see, but when there is no visual stimulus, we focus more on the sound and are still able to identify the source.





For the next little while, we will be focusing on different folk songs, breaking them down into studying their form and their context.

Sound Travels

During the formative week*, I jotted down the children's ideas about Sound. We focused on the central idea: How sounds are experienced, and most of the children's answers were "through our ears." 

In continuation of our discussions, we read the story "The listening walk" by Paul Showers and Keira suggested that we should do the same and go on a walk of our own. The children enjoyed listening to the different sounds in our forest and Serena stated that when she closes her eyes, she can hear the sounds better. 
All the other children tried Serena's suggestion and they all said that they could hear the birds in the forest and feel the wind on their faces. 
I could see it on their faces that some of them enjoyed listening to the different sounds with their eyes closed and Zoe mentioned that she can imagine the source of where the sound is coming from better with her eyes closed. The Wind group children are eager to explore this unit on Sound and I am very excited to be a part of their learning. 

This upcoming week, we will inquire more about how sound is experienced and the different sounds in our immediate environment.   


* Formative week - The new unit of inquiry is introduced to the children in the first week and the children are provided with opportunities to demonstrate their prior knowledge and current understanding. All the information gathered from the children will be used to guide and direct the next stage of teaching and learning.