Music, art, storytelling, outdoor life

REGION: South
MUNICIPALITY: Esbjerg
PROCEDURE: 2022
DAILY DEAL: The spinning top

Period: Dec 2021-March 2022

Head: Rikke T Bloch

Artist: Signe Friis

Art form: Music

Kick-off meeting: Dec 2021

The spinning top story The spinning top

In Snurretoppen, together with a music teacher, we have worked under the theme "Pirates" with 2 groups of children. One group consisted of 3-year-old children, while the other group consisted of 4-year-old children. The goals for the play art have i.a. to support the children's language development, follow their tracks and express themselves artistically in creative processes, e.g. in the form of music, dance, movement, drama/storytelling and visual arts.

During the program, the music educator and the pedagogical staff succeeded in creating a play universe around the theme "Pirates", where the focus was on music, movement and storytelling. For example, the children "rowed" to a deserted island, where they found treasures and wild animals, which they sang and made rhymes about. To support language and pronunciation, work was also done on saying things "in pulse", e.g. "Now we are on a treasure hunt - we are not afraid".

Along the way, there was a focus on following the children's tracks, and especially the group of older children had many initiatives and ideas, e.g. one boy acted as a "hoist bridge" outside and thereby found his place in the play, as he had difficulty participating in the game of "walking the plank". In the LegeKunst program, the pedagogical staff became better at following the children's ideas and taking an active part in their games. For example, one girl had an idea that food should be cooked on the deserted island, and she therefore took the initiative to "cook" for the other children - a game that she played successfully and which we have seen that she has often returned to afterwards.

With the younger children, the children needed tracks to be laid out for them to follow, as the initiative did not come so much on its own. The children are particularly fond of the singing games, which they can move to, and they enjoy "rowing" by sitting opposite each other and holding hands. They often do this on their own initiative and with different playmates. The children have also been enthusiastic about drumming, and they have practiced regulating themselves and playing loudly/quietly, as well as listening and stopping when the song was over. Several of the games have thus trained listening attention as well as regulating themselves and waiting their turn.

At the end of the program, we will continue to work with rhythms and saying things "in pulse", as the children themselves have begun to make rhythms and play on things they find in the sandbox, for example with the help of sticks and buckets. We see that the children, on their own initiative, have begun to make rhythms and sing along to self-penned songs, and we have become curious to explore the effect of working with rhythm and pulse in relation to supporting language development and rhythm in language. We have e.g. talked about how we want our speech and hearing consultant to unfold the topic so that we can work further with this and gain a greater professional understanding of how we can use rhythm and pulse to support language and pronunciation.

As pedagogical staff we have become better at using rhythm in pedagogical activities, e.g. we have experimented with training listening attention by making 3 rhythm beats with sticks in the air, 3 rhythm beats on the floor etc. We generally play more on drums and inventory, and have become extra aware of using silly rhymes and instruments in everyday life. We will continue our work on following the children's tracks, but have also realized that some children have a greater need for structure and find it difficult to change direction and follow new tracks all the time.

In Snurretoppen we have been working under the theme "Pirates" for 3 months now, and LegeKunst has been a part of this. We ourselves have worked a lot with visual arts and the creative creative part, while the collaboration with the music educator has helped to expand our play universe in the creative musical area. LegeKunst has thus added new dimensions to the children's games, but it has also given the pedagogical staff the skills, desire and courage to experiment further with the musical element in play and pedagogical activities.

Snip, snap, snout - now that story is out.

Rikke Thoustrup Bloch

Head of Education

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