WollCon has started a new type of early years music experience for preschoolers and their siblings. It’s called Fun Fantails, and we are looking for families to join in the fun.
Amelia has previously worked as the Music Specialist at Sydney’s International Grammar School Early Learning Centre where she created and facilitated programs that focused on two main elements of music education:
1. structured, whole class music lessons which she led, and
2. inquiry, and interest based music experiences, sparked and led by the children’s natural curiosities.
“These inquiry based music experiences and explorations were wide ranging and quite often focused on the more atypical characteristics of music, such as drawing or making the sounds of music “visible”, or perhaps marrying nature with conventional musical instruments and exploring sound production.”
Essentially, the children and their families are invited to explore the provocations that are set up in the environment.
For example, the sessions would begin with “light and shadow” – exploring the children’s shadows projected onto different surfaces, observing how their bodies shift, their shape and how they react to a variety of musical pieces and soundscapes in space. As the weeks continue, more objects, provocations and music pieces will be set up to deepen the child’s curiosities, challenge their thinking or even just extend their play.
Based on the Reggio Emilia approach where the environment is the “third teacher”, the sessions will not always have a teacher leading a structured lesson. The environment will be set up intentionally to invite children to engage in open-ended materials that can possibly spark a question, an interest, or an opportunity to research further.
The sessions are also an opportunity where parents and carers can learn alongside the child (“co-construction of learning together”). They can also guide them, question and challenge their thinking.
“For example, an adult can provoke the child with questions such as, ‘I wonder why your shadows look different on these two different screens? What sounds can we make to show the difference?’ ” Said Amelia.
Through these family sessions Amelia hopes to help children:
- Develop a love of natural inquiry,
- Celebrate music as more than just instruments and song,
- Foster and nourish a child’s ability to communicate and express themselves in ways that go beyond just the verbal, and
- Give opportunities for children to step into their “inquiry mode” and build a love of learning and a strong sense of self.
Sessions will be scheduled for Tuesday mornings and we are pleased to announce that for those families already enrolled in another WollCon ChiME class, there will be a 25% discount for the Fun Fantails sessions.
Families can register their interest by contacting WollCon on [email protected]
Shadow images courtesy of Island Cooperative Preschool.
