PreK Music: Can This Be A Place For STEAM?, Amy Burns

PreK Music: Can This Be A Place For STEAM?

Amy Burns & Stephanie Santos Far Hills Country Day School aburns@fhcds.org

In the May 2014 Issue of TEMPO, I wrote an article titled, “When PreK Music Is Added To The Schedule,” because through social media and networking at conferences, I met more music educators who were newly assigned to teaching PreK music. As I stated in that article, one of the reasons I love my job so much is because I have the opportunity to teach PreK music and to bring music education to students as young as three years old.

One of the hottest topics in education over the past few years has been STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). I first saw STEM in action when two of the science teachers at Far Hills Country Day School, Jen Wagar and Julie Blanco, presented to the faculty about a webinar that they had taken that involved changing STEM to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics). Their presentation inspired me as they taught us that although STEAM is an acronym, it is more a philosophy based on the integration of these subjects across the curriculum. Jen and I partnered to create a STEAM unit for the third grade music and science classes that included students experiencing and problem-solving real world situations. During this unit, third graders created music and instruments using science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. An article about this unit is included in the January 2015 Issue of TEMPO titled, “Integrating With Integrity In The General Music Classroom.”

Is There A Way To Incorporate STEAM Into The Music Classroom, Especially The PreK Music Classroom?

When educators, including music educators, are approached to think about the possibility of collaborating on a STEAM project, PreK students may not be the age group that first comes to mind. However, this year at Far Hills Country Day School, our PreK program is using a project approach learning method in which typically small groups investigate topics that emerge through their play and capture their interest. The students are encouraged to formulate questions to be answered by investigation, make predictions about what the answers might be, compare their findings with those predictions, and provide some way of communicating their understandings. This year, our PreK program added the “Studio” room, led by PreK teacher, Stephanie Santos. When I explored the Studio, Stephanie showed me a wonderful, hands-on learning environment in which the students use a variety of materials to explore and create.

At the beginning of the school year, the first music classes I had with the PreK were ones during which they explored the four families of classroom percussion instruments: woods, drums, shakers, and metals. Our first family was woods.

The students experienced how the wooden classroom instruments, such as sand blocks, wood blocks, rhythm sticks, clappers, and guiros, made short sounds, were all made out of wood, could be played in a variety of ways, and more. When the students explored the sand blocks, they noted to me how “scratchy” the sand blocks felt and how you could clap or rub them. This prompted me to tell the PreK students to ask Mrs. Santos if she had sandpaper in her classroom to explore further.

When this particular PreK class went to Mrs. Santos’s classroom a few days later, one student immediately asked her: “Mrs. Santos, do you have sandpaper in the Studio?” When she showed them the sandpaper, another student asked, “How do they turn out as instruments?” As Mrs. Santos listened further, she was able to prompt them, which produced more questions. The conversation documented by the teacher, went like this: • “Maybe we can start with [these children] and me.” (The student points to each of her friends as she lists who will be involved in the project to begin.) • “I’m making a list.” • “They had handles and when we clapped them or rubbed them they made different sounds.” (Referring to the instrument they were exploring with Mrs. Burns.) • “I forgot how to spell ‘red’. How do you spell red?” (This student wants to paint her instrument red and would like to write it down. The teacher helps her sound out the word and she is able to match the sound to the correct letter.) • “I made a rectangle.” • “I think we can wrap paper around (the sand blocks).” • “I want to paint them with glue and sandpaper.” • “I’m adding a lot of blue because my sister likes blue.” • “I like blue and red. I’m going to mix the blue on the red.” • “I want mine just purple.” • “Can I put some pink on top of the purple?”

As the students were deciding how to make the instrument, they also sketched a design of their instrument and selected materials to use to create the instrument. Mrs. Santos had blocks for the students to use to help this process. Finally, they used materials, such as paint, to decorate their newly created sand blocks.

While in music class, the students learned about the traditional concept of percussion families, in the Studio, students extended their interest in and explored the composition of the percussion instruments. I am fortunate to be able to have a wonderful colleague like Stephanie with whom to collaborate and support throughout this project. However, you may be thinking how could you provide a similar experience when you do not have access to those types of materials?

How To Approach Making Instruments With Young Children?

When collaborating with your colleagues on projects that deal with the following terms: Project-based learning, STEAM, integration, cross-curricular, etc, the focus is on how to make this possible and successful for the students with the time and material resources you are given. Here’s an idea:

If you do not have the materials to make sand blocks, try making shakers from paper plates, markers, beans, beads, and/or popcorn kernels. Begin with the students exploring and making music with shakers and maracas. This can be done in a variety of ways from singing Laurie Berkner’s song, “I Know a Chicken,” to moving to songs that feature

shakers and maracas. Afterward, present the students with the materials of paper plates, stapler or glue (I use the stapler), beans, beads, popcorn kernels, and markers. Ask the students how they could use these materials if we did not have maracas and shaky eggs to play during the song, “I Know a Chicken” (a wonderful song for shaky eggs). Give the students some markers and paper to draw their design. Then, guide them to ask questions about how shakers, shaky eggs, and maracas produce sound and how the beads, sand, beans, etc., inside the eggs and maracas, stay in the instrument? The results will likely be children engaged in learning about music, learning about sound, singing a song, and performing with their newly created instruments. In a future class, think about skyping in a musician, like a percussionist, who can demonstrate how numerous percussion instruments and a drum set is played. The musician can also answer questions from the PreK.

When Learning About Sound, Does Age Matter?

Age is not a factor when it comes to students thinking about sound and how music affects them. The European curriculum model for ages three through five emphasizes learning through doing and interacting with peers and is one of exploration and stimulation without formal understanding (Feierabend, 1995). A Reggio-Emilia inspired curriculum (founded by Loris Malaguzzi) also emphasizes that children learn by ideas, thoughts, and observations, by constructing relationships between/among materials, people and experiences. In a recent class, Mrs. Santos wanted to have the children explore the Studio while live music was being played in the classroom. She asked me to come to the Studio to play my flute. In Stephanie’s words:

In a recent Studio exploration, the teachers asked themselves: how does music affect the way children explore materials? In a memo to the PreK families, studio teacher Stephanie Santos, explained the genesis of the exploration:

This question presented itself when children noticed that there was music playing while they worked in the Studio. “Now it’s slow” and “this is making me go faster,” were a few recurring remarks as the melodies played. Comments such as these triggered the idea to have our music teacher, Amy Burns, come into the Studio and play her flute with the intention of answering the following questions: does music change the way a child approaches a material? How do children react to sound, and can a change in tempo affect the speed at which they work?

It was established that each class would have a time frame of thirty minutes in the Studio while Mrs. Burns played the flute. The experience was a surprise for the children. Provocations were set out on the tables in the event that the children would aspire to create something as they listened to the classical notes. The materials available were as follows: • Q-tips to dip in a selection of different colored paints; white paper • Fine tip pens; strips of white paper • Metallic paint to be used with thin paintbrushes; black paper • Light toned colored pencils; black paper • A selection of different colored paints at the easel; white paper • Pencils; white paper • Musical instruments (wooden) • Loose pieces: small rocks, beans, corn; slabs of wood • Projection of an image of moving bodies; string and scarves; cardboard tubes

As the children walked into the Studio, they were welcomed by the delicate sound of the flute. The children were assured that they could walk around as they pleased to explore the space and materials. Teachers walked around the room as well and attended to the needs of the children — listening to their comments as they interacted with the music and materials. What happened next was, in fact, magical!

The effects of the music on the children were palpable. Children paused to look up at Amy if they heard a change in tempo and subsequently returned to their creations. Brush strokes and pen marks moved in sync with the rhythm

of the melody. At times, the music accompanied the children’s work, and at other times, the inverse informally occurred as if in harmony. If the music stopped, the children stopped working to look up, acknowledging a break. When the classroom instruments were uncovered, a “marching band” was unleashed. Once the music stopped for more than a few seconds, there was a sudden uneasiness and the children were drawn to Amy to find more connections. This is when Amy allowed them to press a few keys on the flute and create a tune of their own. One child approached Amy with a “Music Book” on which he had been working as she played. This evolved into Amy playing the music he had ‘written’ in his book. Movement occurred once the children had satisfied their need to create on paper. The projector area was a stage for rhythms of instruments and bodies. The Studio was overflowing with inspiration and imagination. All of this thanks to the magical effects the music brought to the children. Does music change the way a child approaches a material? Most certainly!

STEAM In PreK Music:

When you read the first example above, you can see where introducing STEAM in the PreK music is very natural. Young children want to explore and learn by doing. It is innate in them. When they explore musical concepts, such as performing on instruments and discovering sounds, STEAM becomes a natural progression into the music classroom. The above examples showed science (as they explored what sound is and how it is made), technology (perhaps including an exploration of percussion instruments through google or use of a drawing app like Explain Everything to sketch/draw their instruments), engineering (designing the instruments), arts, and mathematics (the feeling and performing of the steady beat versus no beat). The results--PreK students who love to play on their newly created instruments; PreK students who can talk to you about how sound is produced from those instruments; PreK students who can perform the steady beat on those instruments and move to music with their instruments; and PreK students who can bring those instruments home to their parents to tell them about how music was a wonderful experience. This example enhanced the PreK music classroom that involves singing, moving to music, playing instruments, performing fingerplays, and more, each time they come to music class.

When you read the second example, you can see how the students were affected and inspired by sound. Many of them drew to the music, designed artwork that reflected the music, and one even created a music book of songs. The example reminded me of when violinist Joshua Bell wore a baseball cap and played Bach in the D.C. Metro Station. When this occurred, many ignored his playing. However, a preschooler, who was being dragged by his mother who was late for an appointment, wanted to stop and listen to the music. Who knows what the preschooler would have done, whether listened or danced or more, if the mom had been able to take the time to stop and let her preschooler listen to Joshua Bell? The Studio teacher was initially answering the question of how music affects the way young children approaches materials. However, it also showed how young children are drawn to music. Had there been follow up classes, the music educator could have had the children further explore the following items: creating music, moving to music, performing on instruments, and designing artwork or a music creation such as a composition or instrument.

If you are being asked to approach STEAM in your young students’ music curriculum, stop to think about if it can be done in your teaching situation. Does your entire PreK music curriculum need to be STEAM? No. Can you integrate STEAM into the music curriculum with young children? Yes, most definitely!

Amy M. Burns is an elementary music educator, clinician, author, and musician. She currently works at Far Hills Country Day School (http://www.fhcds.org) in Far Hills, NJ teaching PreK through Grade 3 general music, grade 5 instrumental music, and grades 4-8 instrumental band.

Stephanie Santos is an early childhood educator at Far Hills Country Day School.

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