Music and Movement: Fennies New Campaign Inspiring Creativity

In Early Years Education, we nurture children’s musical development in lots of ways.  There are many benefits to this and is why it makes itself a core part of our curriculum to help children be truly creative.

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Music has links to so many other areas of the curriculum, which combined help provide holistic development opportunities for the children. Therefore, we provide broad musical activities for all of the children at Fennies through lots of different experiences.

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Through this blog, we’ll be discussing the benefits of musical activities on children’s development.

• Creativity
• Emotional Benefits
• Physical Benefits
• Communication and Language Skills
• Literacy and Numeracy Skills
• Diversity and Inclusion
• Parent Partnerships

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Music and Movement at Fennies

Music, singing, dancing and playing percussion instruments flow throughout the day at nursery, you will often hear children singing as you pass by rooms or pop into the garden! To celebrate this we will be hosting a Music and Movement Open Day of all things music on Saturday the 1st of March, from 9:30am to 11am at all of our Fennies Nurseries, so make sure to check out your local Fennies! 

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You can bring along your little musicians for a morning of singing and dancing to spark their creativity. They’ll be able to play instruments, listen for patterns and explore the world of music. Whilst all that fun is going on, you’ll be able to:

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• Take a tour of our state-of-the-art nursery spaces.
• Meet the talented educators who are beyond dedicated to ensuring a nurturing and secure learning environment.
• Meet other parents and connect with the local community.
• Ask our dedicated teams questions to get an understanding of what Fennies has to offer!

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We can’t wait to see you. Make sure you bring your listening ears and singing voices! 

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The Benefits of Music and Movement 

Creativity

Children’s creative edge is enhanced through things such as creating simple dance routines or dancing to different genres of music. They can even create their own instruments during a junk modelling session or invent a storyline while listening to a piece of music. We always encourage them to invent new lyrics to familiar nursery rhymes. These are all ways that music can spark a child’s imagination and creativity.

Through listening to and responding to a range of music and singing songs our children are learning the basics of ‘Musical Theory’ such as ‘pitch’, ‘tempo’, ‘pulse’, ‘rhythm’ and ‘timbre’. 

Emotional Benefits

We can all identify with the feeling of singing along or dancing to our favourite piece of music and how that can then affect our mood. Children are no different, and a joyful piece of music can give a real emotional boost! Playing instruments, painting to music or simply moving to music can have a beneficial effect on helping develop children’s emotional awareness.  

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Music can also help children regulate their emotions when children feel overwhelmed, frustrated or angry. A calming piece of music coupled with space to be quiet can be all that it takes to help soothe an anxious child or give them a sense of calmness. Singing can also help children regulate their breathing and stress levels. There are even more benefits to children singing in a group or in front of others, as it can help build their self-esteem and self-confidence.

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Physical Benefits

By participating in music-based activities, we can help children to learn spatial awareness and respond to how their bodies move and behave when exercising. It also introduces aspects like coordination and rhythm, whilst also encouraging holistic physical development.

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Positional language is also developed through dancing with ribbons or scarves. We use vocabulary such as ‘over’, ‘under’, ‘next to’ and ‘besides’. Fine motor skills are developed through playing smaller instruments such as castanets, plucking strings, also just general tapping and shaking!

Communication and Language Skills

Listening to sounds, singing rhymes, and learning a variety of songs all help develop children’s language and communication skills. Songs often form patterns, which along with the introduction of new words and repetition, is a powerful way that we can enhance children’s communication skills. 

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Children love their favourite nursery rhymes and fun/silly songs, allowing them to really enjoy their time at nursery, all while beginning to add new words to their vocabulary. From our Explorers to our Inventors, children are immersed in a wonderful environment of music and song. 

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Literacy and Numeracy Skills

There are lots of ways we can encourage the development of children’s literacy and numeracy skills through music-themed activities. Adding music or sound effects to favourite stories is a simple way we can encourage musical development through literacy. Classical or instrumental music is an obvious choice for this and we encourage the children to listen to orchestral arrangements. With careful questioning, we encourage children to describe what they can hear. 

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Is the music loud or quiet? Fast or slow? What does this music remind you of? 

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By using pictures as prompts, we can develop themes that can then be developed into stories. Fairies, dragons, dinosaurs, and often animals crop up when children begin to hear differences in music. Recently while listening to Vivaldi’s Four seasons a child remarked; “I can hear a mouse running!”

 

Mark Making in various ways can help form the foundation of learning to write. We encourage children to listen to music while using different media to create marks that link to the sounds they can hear such as dots, flicks, lines and squiggles! Painting while listening to music is also a very relaxing activity for the children to enjoy during their busy day. Counting songs, tapping out repeated rhythms, copying a beat and dancing to music, all create opportunities to include mathematical learning.

Diversity and Inclusion

Children enjoy listening to a wide range of music, this includes music from around the world too. When introducing children to music it is important to include music from home and the music children enjoy themselves. Listening to music from many different cultures helps children have a better understanding of the diverse nature of the world we live in. We include musical instruments from different countries and cultures for children to explore and play, and festivals are celebrated with the appropriate music. 

Parent Partnerships

Parent Partnerships are very important to us at Fennies, and as part of this, we value sharing information about children’s home lives and creating links between the learning at nursery and how this can be supported at home. Sharing the songs and activities we do at nursery can help parents extend this learning, often parents tell us about how the children are quickly picking up new words and ‘actions’ from the songs they are learning at nursery! This is especially important with our under two’s who are rapidly learning new words. Inviting parents who either play an instrument or can talk to us about their cultural festivals is welcomed as part of our commitment to parent partnerships.

We were lucky enough to have the chance to speak with Jake, our Nursery Manager at our Nursery in Bromley, to see how the nursery has been benefitting from the recent rollout!

'We have greatly benefited from the Music and Movement Roadshow, which has brought so much joy and learning to our activities. The children have thoroughly enjoyed the Playdough Disco sessions, where they can engage their creativity while developing fine motor skills. The combination of music, movement, and playdough has provided a fun and dynamic experience, fostering both physical and emotional growth in a playful environment. We are excited to continue using these ideas to inspire and engage the children!' - Jake Gould, Nursery Manager at Fennies Bromley, London Lane.

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As you can see music and movement can have such a beneficial effect for our children which is why we champion this at Fennies! Are you ready to join in on the fun? Book your tickets now via this link!

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