Looking for ideas about how to make music with children? Have great ideas or lessons to share? I’ll post some of my favorite songs, videos, and suggestions here and I invite you to share your lessons and ideas on my Facebook and Twitter pages. I’ve met many teachers at NAEYC, NAfME and NAMM workshops and events over the years who have given me lots of great ideas that I’d like to share with you. I have also worked with two very talented educators at these workshops, Carol Stern and Marilyn Copeland Davidson, who have taught me so much.
Carol Stern developed a professional development DVD called Curriculum Connections that gives early childhood teachers easy and powerful teaching strategies for using music to increase understanding of important skills like phonemic awareness, sequencing, and math and science concepts. I worked with Carol on this DVD and we have presented these ideas to teachers all across the country with great success.
Marilyn Copeland Davidson is a music educator, musician, and music textbook author for McGraw-Hill. Together, we produced the music program Music for Fun for children ages four to eight. These lessons were prepared to help teachers provide a conceptually balanced, meaningful, and light-hearted music class. All Music for Fun materials are correlated to the MENC National Music Standards.
The last music educator I would like to mention is my mother, who started me on my musical journey when I was six years old. Thanks, Mom!
I hope some of these musical concepts that I’ve presented at teacher conventions over the years will inspire you to make music an intrinsic part of every young child’s life.
