Musical Panda Play
The children of the Panda group are growing their expressive vocabulary and they’ve got a lot to say about music! Their recent advances in gross motor skills and parallel play have led to a whole new appreciation of song and rhythmic expression.
As their older neighbors in the Zebra and Appie groups are moving into cooperative play, the children in the Pandas are expanding their awareness of the children around them and moving into the phase of parallel play, or ‘panda see, panda do.’ “They're starting to really notice the other children, whereas before, they were more aware of the caregivers,” shared Lead Teacher Elena. “They used to want to be right next to the teachers and follow wherever we moved, now however, if they are enjoying their activity, they will stay and try to master it rather than follow us.” The children are also migrating throughout the yard together, choosing to be in the same area and engaged in the same activity as their peers.
A recent favorite activity in the Panda Group has been music, especially the CEC songbook binder that the teachers use daily. The songbook has a simple line drawing illustration for each song and children quickly learn to anticipate which song goes with a specific picture. “We had been taking it out at certain moments to sing together as a group, and now that they know where we keep it, they will point at it for us to bring it out,” said Elena. In response, the teachers created four mini songbooks that they placed in the book area in order for the children to have easier access to their own copies. Once one child opens a copy, the others want to have one too. Even though the children are not yet speaking in sentences, they have been ‘reading’ the song books by identifying the pictures in the books and using the hand motions the teachers use when they sing it to the group. “When they sit with the mini books, we watch them turning their hands for the Wheels on the Bus, or they'll do the stamping motion with their hands for High Stepping Horses. Through the pictures, they are able to identify the song and repeat the finger play and gestures that go along with the lyrics,” shared Elena.
Favorite songs include High Stepping Horses, Up the Ladder, and The Bear Went Over the Mountain. The children love the big gestures of these three songs and though they cannot yet sing, their language and gross motor skills are developing through the finger play, dancing, and using shakers to fully appreciate the rhythm of the music and joy of being with their peers.