Gross Motor Movement for Babies

Parenting Tip: Help baby make BIG movements!

 

Why?

Playing on the seesaw, driving our 'lawnmowers,' standing tall as a tree - all of these activities help your child exercise her large muscle groups.  Older babies & toddlers are definitely in 'movement mode!'  Crawling, pulling themselves up, walking, running, climbing stairs, using push toys, kicking balls... developing their gross-motor skills!  Gross-motor skills are the actions and movements of the large muscles in the body (arms, legs, torso, etc).  Our dance and movement activities, in class, support the development of those muscle groups, and encourage coordination and balance - with each child moving at his own pace. 

As we move, your child is also becoming familiar with the interval between the notes 'sol' and 'mi.'  These are the first two notes a child learns – from 'It's our time..' in our hello song, to 'eggs away…' to 'rain, rain, go away…'  Sol-Mi is everywhere!

 

How?

Read the e-book 'In My Sandbox,' together! 

As you listen to music this week at home, dance around the room, with your child.  Encourage her to reach up high (like a tree!), out wide (like a house), in thin (like a pin), and crouch small (like a mouse) as you dance, together. 

Help build your child's gross-motor skills, with these Classic Back-yard Games - toddler style!

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog: Learn about 4 Benefits of Baby Music Classes (including gross-motor development!).

 

Kindermusik 7-year continuum:

Now, you are helping baby move her large muscle groups (or maybe doing those moves completely for her).  As a toddler, he will copy your big motions with his own body, learning how to do those moves himself.  In Kindermusik preschool classes, your child will use those big body motions to learn about musical concepts, like forte & piano, or staccato & legato.  In Kindermusik Young Child classes, big kids refine those movement skills to discover just how much muscle (or air) power it takes to produce a good tone on the glockenspiel, dulcimer, recorder, and other instruments.

 

Toddlers Love to Imitate!

Parenting Tip: Teach your toddler songs by having them ECHO you!

 

Why?

Play is one of the most important ways that two & three-year-olds learn & develop.  Emerging during childhood, imitative play is a type of play where a child begins to copy or mimic another person.  A child seeing another child play egg shakers, to match the feel of the music, or a child noticing that Mommy dances slower, when the music is slower, then matching her tempo, are examples of imitative play in action.  Imitation helps children begin to work out the relationships between themselves and the things & people around them.  From this, cooperative and pretend play will blossom during the preschool years.  Giving children plenty of opportunities to mimic a wide array of experiences, both familiar, and new, supports their ongoing development.

 

In our toddler classes, we use imitation to help your child begin to "feel" the music.  Whether it's moving like a slide whistle making glissandos or feeling the syncopation to a favorite chant like "On the Ground," your child will follow your lead. As you move and groove to the steady beat and enjoy the rhythmic patterns of the music, your child will begin to copy you and do the same!

 

How?

Go on a Listening Walk!  

As you listen to music at home this week, dance around the house, with your child.  Play a 'follow me' game, where your child imitates you sometimes, and you imitate her sometimes.  Who else wants to join the game? 

Then, play 'follow me' with some animals, during  I Can Do That, Too! 

Sing "Eency Weency Spider" using hand motions and invite your child to copy you. How soon were they doing the motions? Singing some of the words? 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - read how your child's attempts to imitate you, as you sing, can nurture their speaking and singing voice!

 

Kindermusik 7-year continuum:

As a baby, your child relied on you to help them experience the world by doing things FOR them.  Now, as a toddler, your child learns best by imitating what you (and others) are doing.  As a preschooler, he will learn musical concepts in class by immersing himself in an imaginary world where musical things just happen (like a Make Believe pirate ship or castle, or a pretend garden full of musical animals). Big kids in Young Child classes use that imagination to create songs that match certain words or moods, and take learning a step further, by learning to read and write musical notation!

 

Preschoolers Move at Their Own TEMPO

Parenting Tip: Go fast & slow with your preschooler!

 

Why?

Fostering self-expression and inclusion (as we do, when giving all a turn to choose 'fast' or 'slow' tempi, as we sing in our preschool classes called "Laugh & learn") assures fairness for children, and enhances meaningful participation in their own learning. 

When children are free to express their intentions and act creatively within a form of learning, their development of basic motivation or will is strengthened.  Where this willfulness can be strengthened, a positive relationship to self-directed learning can emerge. 

This leads to the development of expertise (much like the professional musician who, through countless hours of disciplined rehearsal, becomes a expert player).  - adapted from Rhiannon Venables, Fostering Artistic and Creative Expression in Children, Learning Links - Helping Kids Learn

 

How?

look at 'I Can Do That!' As your child enjoys moving like each animal, encourage her to notice whether the animal moves fast or slow - then match that tempo!

Then, listen to some Garden Sounds.  If you like, extend this into a family game of 'Who's Making All That Noise' from our new home CD. 

Play the Creatures of the Garden track (from Kindermusik's In My Garden CD), and enjoy moving together like snails, mice, turtles, and rabbits.

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - See how  tempo can help you at home, and help your child in future musical endeavors!

 

Kindermusik 7-year continuum:

As a Kindermusik baby, your child experienced fast & slow tempo when you moved her fast or slow to the music.  In toddler classes, he discovered ways to move his own body fast or slow.  Now, in preschool Kindermusik class, your child gets to make creative decisions for the group, choosing either fast or slow tempi for our class songs (is the woodpecker pecking fast or slow today?).  In Young Child classes, big kids use these years of experience to decide how fast or slow they need to play in order to stay with the group, as well as to make creative decisions about how fast that thunderclap sound should go, when creating their own musical compositions.

 

The Long & Short of Moving with Baby

Parenting Tip: Move with baby to long and short sounds, this week!

 

Why?

Learning to control energy is an important skill that helps with balance, expressive movement and coordination. 

When we use smooth movements to go with connected, legato sounds, and bumpy movements to go with short, staccato sounds, we are preparing your child to better-understand those musical articulations.

 

How?

Turn on some music and dance with baby! 

Then, listen to some Bird Voices!  Most of these calls have a bumpy quality to them.  Can you and baby wiggle as the birds make their calls?  What if you paused the video between birds, and rock & sway smoothly, like the clouds that float in the sky?  Does baby prefer one movement more than the other? 

Cue up 'This Little Light of Mine' (from Kindermusik's Way Up High CD), and grab a baby bell or shaker.  Can you make smooth, long, connected sounds during the intro & other choral parts?  Can you make bumpy, short, non-sustained sounds during the banjo/dancy parts?  What if you add movement to match?  What is baby's reaction?

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - read 10 Reasons Why Music Belongs in Every Child's Home (whether you are having a smooth day, or a bumpy one!).

 

Kindermusik's 7-Year Continuum:

Now, you are your babies guide to the opposite concepts of sustained & unsustained movement.  As the music changes from smooth to bouncy, you move baby and change movement styles accordingly.  As a toddler, you will move in smooth & bouncy ways, as your child follows along, imitating those movement styles, and noticing how they match changes in the music.  In Kindermusik preschool class, your child will learn musical terms for smooth (legato) and bouncy (staccato), and will use legato & staccato motions during musical games ('out here on the sea, the waves are bumpy today – get in your 'staccato' boats!).  As a big kid in Young Child class, your child will review staccato & legato, will draw representations of legato & staccato sounds, and will sing & perform using staccato & legato articulations.

 

Toddlers Can Create Musical Expression Through Dynamics

Parenting Tip: Play with loud and quiet sounds, this week!

 

Why?

For 2 & 3-year-olds, learning through opposites is a very effective way to present new concepts.  The opposite concepts of loud & quiet (musical 'dynamics') can be effectively experienced through playing instruments, singing, and listening. 

Movement can be incorporated into the experience as the children vary their motions, making them large and small, or heavy and light to express loud and quiet with their bodies. 

It's also important for children to begin to experience loud and quiet as an aspect of musicality.  It's natural for children to delight in playing loudly, but it requires much more emotional and physical control for young children to create music quietly.

 

How?

Get out an instrument or sound maker, and explore ways to play it loud and quiet. 

Turn on a favorite song from Kindermusik's Up in the Sky CD, and play the beat!  Does your child prefer loud or quiet sounds with the instrument?

Play a dynamics game!  At home, or out & about, play a game using loud and quiet voices.  (Look – a bird!  Is he loud or quiet?  Can you make quiet bird sounds?...) 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - for ideas using loud and quiet music, read 10 Secret Musical Tricks Every Parent Should Know!

 

Kindermusik's 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child watched and listened as you made loud and quiet sounds in class.  Now, as a toddler, she is exploring ways to make loud & quiet sounds, herself (following your lead).  As a preschooler, your child will learn musical terms for loud (forte) and quiet (piano), and will make decisions on his own about which sounds should be loud, and which should be quiet (should the lion be represented by a loud sound, or quiet?).  As a big kid in Young Child classes, your child will use piano and forte in the playing of songs on instruments (when the mouse is sneaking, play 'piano,' and when he runs away, play 'forte!').  In addition, they will learn other dynamics terms, like 'crescendo' (going from quiet to loud), and 'decrescendo' (going from loud to quiet).

 

Sequences & Patterns for Preschoolers

Parenting Tip: Discover sequencing through musical form – like the Pirate Treasure Dance!

 

Why?

Pattern awareness is crucial to learning and memory.  Just as in reading stories, singing and rhythmic speech expose participants directly to the patterns of language including rhythm, speech sounds, syntax, and rhyme.  With sequencing, we are able to put things in order form the first to the last.  Practicing this skill helps children prepare for reading comprehension & daily activities such as following a list of directions or instructions. Being able to break down a task into steps is also important in learning self-management, because appropriate sequencing helps a child reduce frustration and increase success. 

 

How?

Make up your own movement sequence to the Pirate Treasure Dance (on Kindermusik's Make Believe CD)!

play a royal Math Game! 

Then, Parrot the Pirate!  How many phrases can your child echo?  Can they remember the sequence?  What if you and your child made up your own sequence of echoes? 

Cue up the Parrot Talk song, on Kindermusik's Make Believe CD.  Play a sequencing game with pretend parrots on the beach.  (Fly like parrots during the instrumental parts, and echo the parrot whenever he speaks). 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - read 10 Reasons Why Music Belongs in Our Schools!

 

Kindermusik's 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child relied on you to move her body to the patterns in the music.  In toddler classes, your child watched how you moved to musical patterns, and he imitated your movements with his own body.  Now, as a preschooler, your child is discovering musical sequences on their own (the parrots fly during the instrumental part, and they stop to talk during the speaking parts – hey, it's a pattern!)  As a big kid in Young Child class, your child will discover sequences and patterns in the musical notation he is reading (look!  Both of those melody cards have C C A rest in them!)

 

Babies, and Pathways in Movement

Parenting Tip: Travel in straight, zigzag, curvy, and circular pathways with baby!

 

Why?

Toddlers are kinesthetic learners.  They learn by moving, and doing! 

In movement activities, you're maximizing your child's spatial awareness by helping her to experience different pathways in her movement. 

By labeling the movement pathway you are taking, you are also building your child's vocabulary, and his understanding of what he is experiencing in class. 

These experiences, which connect vocabulary and movement, will build both vocabulary and movement skills.

 

How?

Talk words of position, with your child! 

Then, have some fun with a hulahoop :) 

Get out a throw blanket (or a bed-sheet) and take your child around the house on a blanket ride!  Will you take a straight, or curvy path?  Turn on the Waddaly Atcha song (from Kindermusik's Way Up High  CD), and ride away! 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - did you know that movement activates the brain?

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Babies, and Pathways in Movement

SP (pathways in movement + syncopation)

Parenting Tip: Travel in straight, zigzag, curvy, and circular pathways with baby!

 

Why?

Toddlers are kinesthetic learners.  They learn by moving, and doing! 

In movement activities, you're maximizing your child's spatial awareness by helping her to experience different pathways in her movement. 

By labeling the movement pathway you are taking, you are also building your child's vocabulary, and his understanding of what he is experiencing in class. 

These experiences, which connect vocabulary and movement, will build both vocabulary and movement skills.

 

How?

Talk words of position, with your child! 

Then, have some fun with a hulahoop :) 

Get out a throw blanket (or a bed-sheet) and take your child around the house on a blanket ride!  Will you take a straight, or curvy path?  Turn on the Waddaly Atcha song (from Kindermusik's Way Up High  CD), and ride away! 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - did you know that movement activates the brain?

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Toddlers - Becoming a Good Listener

Parenting Tip: Notice sounds, with your toddler – at home, and away!

 

Why?

In almost every class, we have an activity that focuses on the act of listening.  Hearing and listening are different. Your ears and brain naturally receive sound from the environment.  Listening, however, is an intentional, mental process that requires attention and focus as the brain sorts and interprets sounds.  Listening is key to learning, as well as for nurturing connections with others.  Listening activities that focus on one sound at a time, help children practice the skills of attention, and engaged listening.

 

How?

Make some Windy Weather!

Once you have the wind going, create some sky crafts, to ride on the wind!  

Get the whole family together, and have a windy dance party!  Play I Can't See the Wind (from Kindermusik's Up in the Sky CD), and enjoy dancing like wind-blown leaves, all around the house! 

Also from Up in the Sky, try honing in on the owl's call.

Find some soundmakers at your house, and find ways to make sound on our drums

Listen to the upward and downward chimes in Sunshine Play and move your body (or a scarf!)  accordingly.

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Learn more about how to help develop your child's listening skills!

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum: 

As a baby, your child honed in on the sound of your voice, first.  Now, in toddler Kindermusik classes, you are guiding your child to knowledge of new sounds, through focused listening activities (including labeling, and imitating each sound).  As a preschool Kindermusik kid, your child will discover the sounds of specific instruments through listening games (am I playing a shaker, a bell, or rhythm sticks?).  In Young Child classes, your child will use her listening skills to make sure that she is playing the correct notes on her glockenspiel, and that she is going at the same tempo as the rest of the group.

 

Preschoolers - Learning Through Contrast!

Parenting Tip: Explore opposites with your preschooler – using music!

 

Why?

Learning through opposites enhances vocabulary and word association, encourages sensory and motor development, develops discrimination and classification skills, and provides plenty of opportunity for fun games!

 

How?

Play the Dolphins & Seagulls game!  Will you swim down low, or fly up high? 

Then, search around town for some dinosaur (or dragon?) eggs!  Help your child to discover the opposites in the game (that egg is up high, on the shelf, but this egg is down low!). 

Teach your whole family how to dance at the ball, by playing 'Sing a Song of Sixpence' (from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD).  Remind them that the Queen prefers tiptoe dancing, with much grace and restraint, while Rupert & the pirates rather enjoy jazzy dancing.  Enjoy exploring contrasting movement together, at home!

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog – Do you like the jazzy sections of 'Sing a Song of Sixpence?'  Then try this Scooby-Dooby-Doo-Wop jazz activity!

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, you helped your child explore opposites when you would move up high during high musical sounds, and down low during low sounds. During Kindermusik toddler classes, your child explored opposites by imitating you as you played loud & quiet sounds, or as you moved the scarf in smooth or bumpy ways.  Now, as a preschooler, your child is exploring more intricate opposites, like the difference between the classical and jazz styles of Sing a Song of Sixpence (from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD).  As a big kid in Young Child classes, your child will explore opposites in relation to musical instruments (did you know that the long bars of the glockenspiel play the lowest sounds, while the short bars play the highest ones?  How can you play the glockenspiel in a staccato, or legato way?)

 

Babies and Heavy vs. Light Movements

Parenting Tip: Stomp, tiptoe, and float to music with baby!

 

Why?

Weight is just one of many elements in movement.  (Others include:  space (personal or general);  direction (forward, backward, sideways);  level (high, middle, low); and pathway (straight, curvy, zig-zag, circular). 

Working with contrasts in weight (Light and Heavy) teaches children to control and understand the impact of their movement (if I hit the drum with more force, the sound is louder).

As baby switches from heavy to light motions, he also begins to notice differences in the music he is hearing (stomping for strings, and tiptoeing for flutes, helps to highlight that those timbres/sounds are different). 

 

How?

Dance, Little Baby! 

Then, find ways to (safely) practice tossing & catching, inside the house! 

What about a family movement game, using the High & Low Dance (from Kindermusik's Way Up High CD)? 

Can you teach the family how to stomp to the strings, and tiptoe to the flutes?  Can you find other 'heavy' movements to use for the strings?  Or other 'light' movements to use for the flutes? 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Find 5 Ways to Celebrate Spring, with Music & Movement! 

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a baby, your child counts on you to move her body in a variety of ways – so that she knows what is possible.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child will use his vocabulary of movement experiences to move his own body to the music – movement is how toddlers learn best!  As a preschooler, your child will begin to use movement to express stories and music, using her own imagination.  In Young Child classes, your big kid makes use of the coordination & muscle control he's been developing over the years, as he holds glockenspiel mallets, and plays notes on his glockenspiel using just the right amount of force.  Small, quiet movements now become a lighter touch with the mallets, as big, loud movements become a heavier touch, producing more instrumental sound.

 

Toddlers - Today's Expressive Movement Means Musical Expression Later

Parenting Tip: Act out a musical story with your toddler – like the Robin Story!

 

Why?

Neural pathways in a child's brain develop through all kinds of movement.

Movement combined with a concept helps you remember that concept.

Cognitive learning is activated by movement.

Children learn movement from others the same way that they learn speech, by imitation and repetition. 

Did you know that each person has their own instinctive way of moving, called a 'movement signature?'  When a child imitates another's movements, her movement vocabulary increases, and her personal movement signature begins to form.

 

How?

Go on a Bird Walk! 

Then, Be a Cloud! 

What if you use items from around your house, and re-enact the Robin Story (from Kindermusik's Up in the Sky CD), as a family?  Use as many or as few props (and makeshift 'costumes?') as you like, and have fun! 

 

Want to Learn More?

On our blog - Learn why movement & learning go hand-in-hand

 

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a Kindermusik baby, your child heard lots of labeling and saw pictures of many new things (animals, clocks, whatever was in this week's song).  Now, in toddler class, your child is beginning to 'be' those animals (like a robin!) and act out stories about it (with you as his model).  As a preschool Kindermusik kid, your child will take ownership in her own expressive movement, by deciding just how a Pirate might move to swab the deck, or hoist the sails.  In Kindermusik Young Child classes, children take what they've learned about expressive movement to control their hand muscles, and breathing, to play glockenspiel, dulcimer, and recorder with just the right amount of volume – musical expression!

 

Preschoolers' Emerging Literacy

Parenting Tip: Use musical pretend play to discover shapes, sounds, creatures, and new words!

Why?

Creativity and Communication are part of literacy development.  (Your child uses these skills in Kindermusik classes during activities like: Out Here on the Sea – where he goes looking for sea creatures & things in his curler/binoculars during a pretend sailing trip). 

Recognizing shapes is a pre-literacy skill (Like discovering shapes during a pretend game about 'instrument treasure').

The more language a child knows the more she is able to think about things not present. Strong language and vocab skills support comprehension, listening, reading, speaking, writing – all skills essential for literacy.

Print Awareness helps your child realize that all of those curved and straight lines have meaning… (like when she tells you a list of things that pirates do, and you write that list for her to see). 

How?

Be a pirate! 

Then, use some Dragon Logic. 

What if you play your own version of Out Here on the Sea (from Kindermusik's Make Believe CD)?  You can use hand-binoculars (or toilet paper tubes, or other cylindrical items) to look all around as your pretend vessel sails the seas. 

What if you helped your child make a list of all of the things that were seen?  (more 'print awareness!')

Want to Learn More?On our blog - learn ways to make every day 'Read Across America (or the World!) Day.'

Kindermusik 7-Year Continuum:

As a Kindermusik baby, your child heard labeling when a new picture or concept was presented.  In Kindermusik toddler classes, your child furthered her understanding of those concepts & things by exploring them together with you, through movement and play.  Now, as a preschooler, your child plays musical games that allow him to recognize shapes, imaginary creatures 'out on the sea,' and he notices that when you write things down on paper, or white board, those squiggles have some sort of meaning.  As a big kid in Young Child classes, your child will use the many pre-literacy skills gained in early Kindermusik experiences to help decode music notes & symbols.