Learning About Nature Through
Music and the Arts
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
Be Curious Be Inspired Create and Share Through Music |
That's a wrap on the 2020-2021 year of TEACHING MUSIC OUTSIDE! I just spent the last few days going over my journal for the year, and counted only 11 days out of the school year that we weren't outside because of the weather. That means for the most part, we were outside for music for fall, winter, spring and a bit of summer before the school year ended! This year started with the collaboration between administration and myself trying to help make our school safe by having students spaced out by 2 metres in all rooms, so the music room became a grade 5 classroom to help achieve this safety! You can read a quick article in Green Teacher Magazine about how it all started, and what amazing things we learned by being outside for music by clicking on this picture below: activitI loved reading some comments from students at the end of the year about what they enjoyed!
What they liked and what they noticed: Using the school yard structures as our instruments Bucket drumming Drama games in the tents Having lots of space Fresh air It's fun Different Dancing is fun Learning that you can do music with nature, with snowsuits We are always listening to music because it is the birds, the planes, the wind... The most important for me is that every student who answered the open-ended survey questions was given the choice to say whether they would like to continue having some music classes outside, and they all said YES! Although some said maybe not when it's really cold! Haha! Some said that they missed instruments, but they also said some of their favourite activities were playing the structure (they had "mallets" for that activity), and the bucket drums, so likely this means the traditional instruments inside that they missed (me too!). In an earlier post (Click here to read about Music Concepts Through Movement) I spoke of the shift I needed to make with instruments this year, so we had some fun experiments to find and be grateful for what we COULD do instead of hyper-focusing on what we COULDN'T do. So I also spoke with our administration, and the arts coordinator about the idea of involving all the arts, which is actually an element of each of the Manitoba Arts Curricula - to show how they are all inter-related (read about this in a post called "Music and ALL the Performing Arts"). In fact, the more we interconnect all the curricula, the more we are teaching the WHOLE CHILD. I've created a document that shows all of the outcomes for many of the main music experiences that occurred this year, and I am pleased to see that with each lesson, each of the wings of the Music Curriculum Butterfly are full of music outcomes. Even though this year was very different than other years, it was still full of music learning - showing that music experiences and learning can take place everywhere, inside and out! Check out the document below to see all the learning that took place, by clicking on the picture!
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Click HERE to go back to the first postBio - Jennifer EngbrechtI am a music specialist in the Louis Riel School Division in Manitoba, Canada. I have a strong interest in the interrelationship of all subject areas, especially infusing the arts into all learning, and as their own stand-alone subjects. NEW:
So excited to be interviewed for Green Teacher Magazine's "Talking With Green Teachers" Podcast My article in the MSSTA Journal for Fall 2021... Click on the image below:
My article in the Summer 2021 Green Teacher Magazine. Click on the image below:
Disconnect: The Outdoor Education Podcast - listen to this episode about Teaching Music Outside by clicking on the picture below:
Looking for the WSO Manitoba Mosaic lesson for Hey Terre by Kelly Bado?
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