We have spent a lot of time exploring the link between music and emotions. The children are now experts at identifying a piece of music as 'happy', 'sad', 'angry', 'excited' or 'calm'. This week the children learned that the well-known lullaby Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star began life as a poem (by English author Jane Taylor, first published in 1806). Over time, it was set to music. We talked about why the music chosen to accompany the poem is soft and calm and talked about why it isn't it faster or louder. The children were able to point out that if the music was more energetic or aggressive, it would "keep the children awake", in other words they recognised that the music had a specific job to do -to create a sense of calm and quiet for those who listen to it. Later in the week the children were invited to be musicians themselves. First they were asked what kind of music they wanted to play. In other words, what mood did they want to create; how did they want to make their audience feel? They were then invited to select from a range of different instruments and to experiment with making music to help engender that particular feeling. Some chose to make music to help the audience feel happy, others chose sad or calm, while still others wanted to make scary music so that the audience felt scared while listening. Experimenting with making music to affect people's feelings turned out to be a lot of fun! T,hose who wanted their audience to feel a sense of happiness played more gently and upbeat, those who wanted to have others feel scared chose instruments that were more eerie-sounding, and played louder and faster. Those playing sad music played slowly while those who wanted to create a sense of calm, tended to choose quieter instruments and to play them softly.
This week we also continued to investigate capacity; considering the terms full, empty and half-full, as well as continuing to compare groups of objects, to decide which has more or fewer. Next week we will begin a new Unit of Inquiry, the central idea for which is Letters help us organise our world. This is great timing, since the children have been showing an increasing interest in letters, in particular the first letter from their own name and the names of their friends. Stay tuned to hear how the inquiry begins in the next post! Wishing you all a wonderful weekend. I hope you are able to enjoy the predicted warmer weather.
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