Making music provides kids with a form of creative self-expression from a very early age. Music and sound making also help us communicate with one another, just like many our our animal friends do. Woodpeckers, beavers, elephants and rabbits make drumming sounds and rhythms to communicate. And, humans, too gather together in drum circles and parades to make music, dance and connect with one another. In this activity, kids can use a few simple, everyday objects to creatively explore sounds and rhythms.
The Guide
Step 1: Watch the Tinkergarten Home Earth Parade video lesson.
Hop into your My Tinkergarten dashboard to watch the Earth Parade video lesson. Kids can watch how Meghan and other explorers use creativity and problem solving to explore beats and rhythms, then get inspired to create their own rhythms and sounds.
Not yet signed up? Click here to sign up or to try a free Tinkergarten Home lesson.
Step 2: Gather some rhythm-making materials.
Gather sticks, wooden spoons, recycled containers, metal bowls, cardboard boxes and any other materials that kids can drum with.
Step 3: Get inspiration from musical nature friends.
Scan the QR codes on these downloadable Creature Rhythm Cards to hear the drumming rhythms of nature friends. Invite kids to try using their voice, body or the drumming objects you gathered to imitate the rhythms they hear.
Step 4: Create your own rhythms.
Welcome kids to explore the objects you gathered and create their own rhythms. What sounds can they create when they bang two sticks together? What sounds can they create when they bang on a recycled container? A metal bowl? Experiment with making hard, soft, fast and slow sounds to communicate different feelings and ideas. What does happy/sad/angry/scared sound like? What else can you communicate with sound? Drum a beat, then invite your child to imitate it. What kind of conversation can you create together using the beat of your drums?
Extend Play!
Extend Play with some of these ideas:
Invite kids to think about the Earth. What gifts does the Earth provide us? What message could we communicate to the Earth? What message could we communicate with other people to inspire them to care for the Earth? Then, create a rhythm together to communicate your message!
By creativity, we mean the ability to both imagine original ideas or solutions to problems and actually do what needs to be done to make them happen. So, to help kids develop creativity, we parents need to nurture kids' imaginations and give them lots of chances to design, test, redesign and implement their ideas.
"Creativity is as important now in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”
Why, you ask? For one, it is through being creative that a person is able to get senses, sensibility and spirit working together. Simply put, without creativity, we don't think our kids will live a full life.
On a more practical level, it's also the means by which humans of all ages make an impact on the world and other people around them. A lot of heavy stuff is going to go down in our kids' lifetime, and their generation will need to imagine and implement solutions to big and very complicated problems. Although our kids are still far from public office or the boardroom, today's political and business leaders worldwide are already pointing to creativity as the most important leadership quality for the future.
Although years from the art studio or design lab, little kids can learn to think and act creatively if you give them time and the right practice.
Naturalist
Category:
Thinking Skills
What is a Naturalist?
The oldest and simplest definition, “student of plants and animals,” dates back to 1600. The term has evolved over time, it's importance changing as the values of dominant culture have changed. 400 years after that old definition, Howard Gardner, the paradigm-shifting education theorist, added “naturalist” to his list of “multiple intelligences.” Gardner challenged the notion that intelligence is a single entity that results from a single capability. Instead, he recognizes eight types of intelligence, all of which enable individuals to think, solve problems or to create things of value. To Gardner, the Naturalist intelligence enables human beings to recognize, categorize and draw upon certain features of the environment.
A true naturalist has not simply Googled and learned the names of plants, animals, rocks, etc. Rather, he or she has had direct experience with them, coming to know about them and using all senses to develop this intelligence. A naturalist also has a reverence for nature, valuing and caring for living things from the smallest mite to the tallest tree. A naturalist comes to not only knowing the creatures and features of his or her environment, but treasuring them in thought and action.
Why does it matter?
In the process of becoming a naturalist, children become stewards of nature, a connection that is associated with a range of benefits, including greater emotional well-being, physical health and sensory development (not to mention the benefits to nature itself!). In a world in which primary experience of nature is being replaced by the limited, directed stimulation of electronic media, kids senses are being dulled and many believe their depth of both their interest in and capacity to understand complicated phenomena are being eroded. To contrast, the naturalist learns about the key features of their natural environment by using all of his senses and be interpreting open-ended and ever-changing stimuli.
Sensory
Category:
Body Skills
What is Sensory Development?
Although some scientists classify as many as 20 senses, when childhood educators talk about "developing the senses," we typically mean developing the five standard senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. In addition to honing these senses, educators care about sensory integration, which is the ability to take in, sort out, process and make use of information gathered from the world around us via the senses.
Why does it matter?
The better kids are able to tune and integrate their senses, the more they can learn. First, if their senses are sharper, the information kids can gather should be of greater quantity and quality, making their understanding of the world more sophisticated. Further, until the lower levels of the brain can efficiently and accurately sort out information gathered through the senses, the higher levels cannot begin to develop thinking and organization skills kids need to succeed. Senses also have a powerful connection to memory. Children (and adults) often retain new learning when the senses are an active part of the learning.
So, if kids have more sensory experiences, they will learn more, retain better and be better able to think at a higher level. Makes the days they get all wet and dirty in the sandbox seem better, doesn't it?
Age: 0 to 8+
Time: 1 hour+
Materials: Bowls; boxes; recycled containers; sticks; printable resources
