Tag: music

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Music Inspiration for Primary School Classes

Are you looking for some music inspiration and education aids for your Primary School Class? Music is part of the Arts Education Curriculum for primary schools and includes three strands; Listening & Responding, Performing and Composing. According to the Primary School Curriculum Listening & Responding ‘emphasises the importance of purposeful, active listening in order to elicit physical, verbal, emotional and cognitive responses’.

Performing concentrates on the voice and how children can use it as their own instrument when starting off on their music learning journey. Learning simple rhymes and songs will give children the confidence to learn songs with more notes and from different styles, cultures and traditions. Finally, composing focuses on growing individual children’s creativity and uniqueness. This can be done by providing opportunities for the children to express themselves.

Music Inspiration Products at The Primary School Shop

At the Primary School Shop we have some wonderful music products suitable for use in primary school classes such as Funky Feet Music and Ceol Ireland Music Education. Funky Feet Music is a set of award winning CDs with teacher guides that will encourage children to learn through play and movement. The award-winning Ceol Music Education system focuses on musical fluency and teaching children the language of music.

Funky Feet Music: There are 5 albums in the Funky Feet range and each set comes with 20 songs on a CD and a guide showing the words and suggested actions for each song. This guide will help teachers encourage children’s creativity and active participation in music and movement.

All five albums contain a variety of music from around the world that include a toe tapping, foot stomping, thigh slapping, tummy tickling, hand clapping, instrument playing, parachute waving, fun filled learning experience for both teacher and children alike. Funky Feet Music is most suitable for the younger classes in Primary School.

Ceol Ireland Music Education: The award-winning Ceol music education system extends from pre-school through primary school. The programme focuses on musical fluency and teaching children the language of music: listening, reading and writing musically. It following the National Curriculum as each stage covers the three curriculum strands and units appropriate to each age level. This includes Listening & Responding, Performing and Composing.

There are eight stages for 8 different ages ranges between 5 and 12 years old. Each stage includes age-specific materials, lesson plans for a full school year, accompanying resource materials and musical tracks for listening & movement and songs & rhymes. Every 6 weeks the teacher watches a training DVD to prepare for each module.

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The Benefits of Music and Movement for Children

Singing and music plays an important role in many cultures and you can find it in many areas of our lives including different celebrations and holidays, TV, movies and the theatre. There are many benefits that music can have for children. Right now as we somehow tolerate our new way of living every day through a pandemic, music seems even more important as it can be a great outlet to escape from the everyday pressures of Covid-19. The children are not immune to worrying about different aspects of the pandemic and music will have a positive impact on them as it helps them to relax, express themselves and have fun! There are many benefits that music can have on children which are outlined below:

  1. Improves the child’s brain power: Music helps to stimulate the area of the brain that is responsible for reading, maths and emotional development. Learning different songs on a regular basis encourages the child’s brain function including their memory as they remember the words and tunes of the songs they learn. 
  2. Develops social skills: Young children may face daily challenges of adapting socially. One of the best ways to help them overcome this is to engage in singing and dancing and introducing them to musical instruments. This helps them to develop social skills as they interact with others in their group and shows them how to work as a team. They will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment if, for example, they have learned a particular song or dance routine over a period of time with their classmates.
  3. Builds Confidence: Many young children will battle with confidence as they find their way through pre-school and primary school years. Encouraging them to sing, dance and play instruments gives them a new confidence as they learn new tunes, songs and dances. 
  4. Builds on creativity: Music gives children another outlet to express themselves and a way of building on their creativity. Teaching children about music, dancing and musical instruments from a young age nurtures and encourages their creativity which can continue with them into their adult life.
  5. Helps teach patience: When children are playing with others within their group they will learn to work together and be part of a team. They will learn to understand that learning a song needs time and practice and that the outcome will make them feel good. 
  6. Relaxation: Music therapy is being used a lot more nowadays and studies have shown that music can reduce heart rates and blood pressure. If you play calm and relaxing music to children they will learn to relax and switch off. By doing this from a young age it teaches them to turn to music when they are feeling anxious and they can bring this with them through life.

At the Primary School Shop we have great music options available to Early Years Services including Funky Feet and the award-winning Ceol Music Education Programme. The Funky Feet Music Programme aims to build on both physical development and cognitive skills, developing both the body and the brain through imaginative play. There are 5 different themes to choose from (Learning Through Play, Going on a Journey, Lark in the Park, Chase the Rhythm and Pop Like Popcorn), 4 of which are award winning albums in the Practical Preschool Music and Multimedia section over the last number of years. Each CD includes 20 songs with guidance notes for carers of instructions and songs.

While Funky Feet is suitable for younger children (but can be fun for all ages up to adult!), the Ceol programme is designed to be usable for students through their musical education journey through 8 stages up to around age 12.