Home Hot Topics Articles Directors' Choice Awards About Us / Contact Us Music for Learning Recommended Reading Activities & Curriculum Arts & Crafts Activities for Outcome-Based Learning Sharing Boards: What Do YOU Think? NEWSlink Current National News Conference Calendar Topics In Early Childhood Education Art and Creativity in Early Childhood Education State Licensing Requirements Stay Connected! We'll send you regular emails filled with articles and ideas for your classroom. Subscribe Now   ACTIVITY Moving to Nature’s Music By Marisa Procopio An Activity for Preschoolers Toddlers enjoy movement games and music. This activity combines both while helping them to recognize sounds from nature. Curriculum Area Science, Language and Gross Motor Before You Start Have the children sit in a circle and make sure there is plenty of space between them. Tell them you are going to be listening to sounds they would hear if they went camping, and that they will have a chance to move or make music along with the sounds. Let's Begin 1. Begin the bird music, draw the children’s attention to the fact that it is a bird singing, and then pass each child a bell ring. They will instinctively jingle it along with the music. 2. Lower the music when the birdsong ends. Have one assistant collect the bell rings. There will be some resistance, so have another assistant on her heels handing out scarves. The kids should begin waving them around on their own. If not, when you bring up the wind music, tell them to listen for the wind and show them how to wave their scarves. 3. Lower the music when the wind ends. Again have an assistant collect the scarves and have another pass out the plastic water containers. Bring up the water music and tell the children to listen for the water and to shake their water containers. Furthermore If you don’t have bell rings, you can make inexpensive ones by stringing one or a few little jingle bells (found at fabric stores) with a thick pipe cleaner. Twist the ends to form a ring. Make sure all of the colors of the bells are the same color and all of the colors of the pipe cleaners are the same. Empty, plastic bubble containers would be ideal to use for this activity. Fill each with water about 2/3 of the way up (too much water and you won’t hear it slosh around) and attach the lid tightly. If you can’t find a nature soundtrack in a music store, try looking in one of the nature stores that are popping up all over or look online.   Nature soundtrack, with about 30 seconds of each sound alone: birds, wind, and water Equipment to play it on Small rings of bells (one for each child) Small scarves (one for each child) Small plastic containers filled with water and lidded tightly (one for each child) Articles and activities listed on this website may be printed for single use. No article or activity may be duplicated or distributed in any form, in whole or in part, without permission from the publisher, Excelligence Learning Corporation. Contact Permissions Department.

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