Music can change the world because it can change people.BONO
It’s Music Monday in the National Association for the Education of Young Children Week of the Young Child!
Music Monday is about more than just singing and dancing. It’s a way to encourage children to be active while they are developing their early literacy, math, and emotional skills – and have fun, too!
Music can bring joy, stimulate memories, create connections and inspire creativity. It builds overall brain development and creates pathways in the brain that improve cognitive functioning. Music is one of the few activities that uses both sides of the brain (logical and creative). This helps build important brain connections, and the more connections we have, the faster we are able to think and process information.
Young children and music are natural partners. Newborns respond to music by wriggling with pleasure or being lulled to sleep. Toddlers babble in musical tones and repeat lines in familiar songs. Preschoolers change their voices during play and build a repertoire of familiar and favorite songs.
In early childhood settings, teachers use music with children in many ways — and for many reasons. Songs and rhymes expand a child’s vocabulary, which supports their efforts of communication and learning to read and comprehend. The steady beat, rhythm, and melody of the music all contain mathematical concepts.
Celebrate Music Monday with your young child at home by making a simple shaker instrument. Put unpopped popcorn or other small items in between two paper plates, and staple or tape the plates together. Use the shaker with different types of music.
Interested in learning more about the RPS 205 Early Childhood opportunities for families with children from birth to age 5? Visit the early childhood webpage or call the Early Childhood Screening and Placement Office at 815-229-2103.
Hillary Cook-Harris is the Director of Early Childhood Curriculum and Assessment. Hillary joined RPS 205 in November 2019. She has been an Early Childhood educator and director for more than 28 years.