Music Stories

Benefits of Listening to Music Underscores, enhances and intensifies the emotional response to the story Can enhance memory Can lead to an improved emotional state Stimulates and engages many different parts of the brain

Benefits of Spoken Stories Fundamental part of the human experience Help develop empathy Stimulate imagination Develop memory Increase vocabulary

Post-Story Discussion Reinforces the learning in the story Takes children from passive learning to active learning. Children learn from each other Some topics to cover What happened in the story? Reinforces memory. Children help each other remember events What did characters/landscapes/objects featured in the story look like? Stimulates imagination and visualisation Replay sections, listen, imagine. Connect Aural cues with visual. Light vs. dark, etc. What did the characters do? Why? What would you have done? Reinforces empathy – putting self in another’s shoes. Behaviour modelling – what is appropriate behaviour? Discuss the story world. How is it like/unlike ours? Societal structures/family relationships. Helps children work out how their world works, develops an understanding of what is and isn’t real, nurtures an understanding and acceptance of differences between people and places.

Choose music 10 to 15 minutes long Contains lots of contrasting sections and moods No identifiable lyrics Not limited to western classical tradition Evokes an emotional response in you, as the story teller Remember that kids can be sophisticated listeners, given the chance Listen over and over Note the times of major changes in feel Note any thoughts/images/actions that come to mind “If this were a film...” Everything is right Start weaving it all together (Magic helps a lot!) Writing a Story

Points to Consider Kids are all different Include action sequences for the active learners and short attention spans Include food where possible Lots of rich visual description Describe textures Include feelings, thoughts, internal reactions Include frameworks – i.e. societal structures/familial structures/landscapes It doesn’t have to be a linear story It could be a series of tableaux, one extended description of a scene, a series of short stories It doesn’t have to make a lot of sense Magic is great for explaining random events The children seem to focus on characters’ actions and interactions rather than the setting and events

Telling the Story Include actions for the children to copy Gives smaller children a way to engage with the music and the story Helps ‘doing learners’ understand the events of the story Keeps high-energy and ‘butterfly’ children engaged Involves the children in the story and helps move toward active learning Use lots of gestures Use exaggerated facial expressions Match speech speed and cadence to the music

Free play Introduce musical instruments Children learn where the music comes from Supports physical development Supports persistence and self-confidence Normalises musical instruments Helps build their understanding of how the physical world works and the principles of sound production Get the children actively involved Use pieces like Saint-saens’ ‘Carnival of the Animals’ and invite the children to decide the animals and describe the animal’s environment and actions, or play movements of works like Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ and invite the children to describe the images Active learning Stimulates imagination Develops self-confidence Encourages participation Focussed listening Follow on Activities

Incorporate dance and movement Read written books, i.e. ‘Bear Hunt’, and for each even play some music and ‘dance’. I.e. walking through the long grass. Use props Discuss stories and how we tell stories with our bodies, demonstrate a short story with mime, then play short works and ask the children to tell their own stories with mime. Play ‘Carnival of the Animals’ and ‘be’ the animals