My favorite boy choir - LIBERA

Some children don't know how to sing well coz they don't know what "good singing" is. If Chidlren can listen quality solo/choral singing all the time, it's easier for them to grasp what "good singing" is. Don't know where the search for your choir should start? I recommend Libera!!!I am totall...y in love with this boy choir from England. They sing both pop and classical songs, their stage

BBC Health - Baby recognizes mother's tunes

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2125207.stmBBC-Parenting has quite a good archive on music and babies. This is an easy-to-read article for those mommies and daddies who are interested in finding out more about this topic.

Playing PEEKABOO seriously

Mommy-and-me music is a nice short article that gets parents thinking about what kind of musical games should you play with your children at different ages. Sometimes, adults overlook; games seem pointless and boring to us usually has great educational values behind.I like using the "peek-a-boo" game as an example. Come on, we all know that i...t's not the most exciting game in the world, but we

Music perception and Cognition in the First Year of Life (Ilari, 2002)

This is a journal title from an 2002 issue of the Early Child Development and Care; the author is a professor from McGill who has contributed a lot to this field.The article tries to review the literature published and experiments done on music perception and cognition for babies.The first thing I looked at was its 3-pages long references. I took out my highlighter and highlighted the key words

Prenatal music - does it work?

A lot of people have a misconception about "prenatal education." To me, I think the word "education" is misinterpreted when it comes to the topic of fetal learning.Having read some articles on prenatal music, I know it is just lame to say that babies will grow up to be more musical or smart if they have been exposed to music intentionally when they are still in mothers' wombs. In fact, little is

Music during pregnancy

The great Hungarian music educator, Zoltan Kodaly, once said, "Music education should start 9 months before baby is born."Prenatal music reminds to be an under-explored field in psychology and music. However, it is quite obvious that music can have positive effects on pregnant women both physiologically and psychologically. The well-being of every mom-to-be is so closely-tied to fetus'

音樂與BB (0 至 9 個月)

這幾年﹐遊戲班的冒起令家長開始留意到學前教育的重要性。坊間的選擇眾多﹔音樂﹑體操﹑語文等等都是家長的選擇。未知家長們有否留意﹐大部份的遊戲班通常都建議BB在六個月大時開始參加﹐只有音樂班會歡迎剛出生的BB參加。(從前教音樂班﹐最小的學生在參加時只有三個星期大﹔每個星期看著他一點一點地成長是多麼奇妙的事情!)那是為什麼﹖難到體操班﹑語文班不想早早招攬生意嗎﹖BB通常會在出生後的頭六個月﹐慢慢掌握從頭﹑到頸﹑到上半身﹐最後到下半身的活動。這是生長的定律﹐不用上課﹐不用特別訓練﹐正常的BB也會自然達標。既然還未能坐起﹑未能轉身﹐當然沒有需要上體操課﹑Flashcard課。但音樂不同﹐BB的聽力早在他們出生前已經很發達﹔他們喜歡聽爸爸媽媽的聲音﹑他們才幾個月大便已經有自己喜歡的音樂。(如喜歡簡單的旋律﹑不喜歡吵耳的Rock 'n Roll﹑喜歡唱歌聲音多於樂器聲等。)其實不用上遊戲班﹐

Websites for professionals and parents

1) Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Healthhttp://www.birthpsychology.com/This site contains interesting articles on prenatal music. Although not all articles are peer reviewed, this is a good resource for pregnant moms who would like to know more about prenatal (music) education.2) Zero to Threehttp://www.zerotothree.org/A great resource for parents and educators. It contains a

Welcome to the ECE Assembly of NCTE

Considering submitting a proposal to present at NCTE's
100th Anniversary Conference in Orlando, Florida.

Unfortunately the ECE check box which alerts reviewers that you are submitting to the early childhood strand was left off the e-form. NCTE has been working on the problem. In the meantime, if you are submitting a proposal I would urge you to include 'ECE STRAND' at the start of your annotation or description.

Thank you to those of you who have already submitted proposals!
I'll see you in Orlando!
Vivian

Click here for ECEA events that took place at the 2009 Convention.

Year 1 music: Bumblebee

I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm bring home a baby bumblebee
OUCH! It stung me!!

I'm squishing up the baby bumblebee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm squishing up the baby bumblebee
EEEWWWWW~It's YUCKY!!

I'm wiping off the baby bumblebee
Won't my mommy be so proud of me
I'm wiping off the baby bumblebee
Now my mommy won't be mad at me!
Before we learn

Year 2 World Music - Greece

In the Greek Music unit, we listened to a song called Tik Tik Tak. This song is sung by a Greek pop singer, Glykeria. Children loves the rhythm and would join in everytime when the music sings "tik tik tiki tiki tak," which depicts the beating of of the heart. This is the original version they hear in class.

The Greeks are very musical; they sing their way to all kinds of ceremonies and

Creativity - is it the primary goal or merely a by-product of arts education?

I wish I had more opportunities to explore different kinds of arts as a child. I grew up to be quite musical, but I am NOT AT ALL artistic when it comes to visual arts. To be frank, although I tell children that paint is not dirty and encourage them to mess around with it, I still need to take a deep breath before I get my own hands into paints. When it comes to papier mache, the first thing that

Year 2 music: Canon in D - played by Baroque instruments

In Year 2, I think children are ready to start part-singing. I start training them through round singing. I spent a whole month teaching them about rounds and canons; we sang songs and build rounds on board. As a closing to this unit, I chose to show them a performance of the famous piece - Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel.This video's resolution quality is high, the performance itself is amazing.

World Music

Kids LOVE listening to world music and I love teaching it. Not only can I bring some exotic sounds into the classroom, I can also tell my students about things I've read about other cultures. I was amazed by how focused they are when I tell them about the sad story behind an Ethiopian-Israelite song or how a traditio...nal Bolivian instrument is made of Armadillo shells. I like watching them

Shadow Puppetry

Through shadow play, children realize what amazing things their hands can do. We all know how to make a shadow of a bird, or a dog or a rabbit with our hands. Hand puppet masters have taken this form of art further. Here's a video of a shadow puppet performance set to the song What a wonderful world. Shadow Puppetry is an ancient form of storytelling in many Aisan countries. I really appreciate

Year 2 World Music - Bolivia

World music is one of the must-do topics in my curriculum.  Children should start lisetning to exotic sounds from a young age, it is a great way to nurture their awareness towards cultural differences; instruments we are familiar with may not be popular in other countries.  When children listen to a new sound, sometimes they laugh at it because it's too new that they feel a little uncomfortable

Dear Daddy

Parenting resource online are mainly designed for moms, or, though I don't have academic proofs, writers and critics are usually writing from a female's perspective.One of my close girl friends just gave birth to a baby boy and instead of sending HER parenting tips and websites (which I think she doesn't need as she has been doing all kinds of reading and attending courses during pregnancy), I

Year 2 music: MARIO PAINT COMPOSER

MARIO PAINT COMPOSER is the program that I use to teach composition in Year 2. They can't get enough of it~~I can't wait to have them compose their own song when school starts again after the holidays~~

Mario Paint composer can be downloaded here:
http://www.unfungames.com/mariopaint/

Please note that the musical function is VERY limited, I'd say it's only suitable for children under 7.

For

要上沒有創作的音樂課﹐我寧可孩子去操場跑圈 - 起碼能強身健體。

音樂堂裡所有的活動通常都能歸納在三個範疇﹕聆聽﹑表演﹑創作。(listening, performing and composing) 從前當音樂老師很容易﹔通常老師會選擇吩咐各位打開音樂書﹐一直唱到下課(表演)﹑或讓一班四十多人一起望著二十四吋電視熒幕上放映的天鵝湖 (聆聽)。 但時代不同了﹐如果我有孩子﹐而他的音樂老師依然用這些方法教音樂﹐我寧願我的孩子到操場跑十個圈 - 起碼可以練練氣﹐不用浪費時間。 受過正規訓練的音樂老師﹐一定懂得很多有關 listening 和 performing 的有趣活動﹐所以這兩方面的目標不難達...成。但說到創作﹐最有經驗的老師都會給難到。 借口通常包括﹕ “孩子還少﹐他們怎能作曲﹖” “我只是音樂老師﹐不懂作曲﹑更不懂教作曲。” 其實我到今天都會用這些借口來逃避教授創作 - 老實說﹐我不教﹐孩子和家長都不會要求。(

莫扎特效應

無呢件事。

其實大學一年級時﹐呢個課題o係音樂教育界已經唔係新事。教授問我地﹕“邊個信莫扎特效應﹖” 雖然係有幾個同學舉手﹐但係我們根本唔係好明成件事。我地好似又真係唔知o係邊度睇過﹕“古典音樂能令孩子更聰明”之類o既新聞或廣告﹔莫扎特雖然寫過無數唔同種類o既音樂﹐但斷估佢自己都無心作俾我地o既腦部發展掛﹖

教授回應﹕“完全無呢樣o野 - 從來無研究顯示過音樂能夠令人更聰明。”

呢幾年﹐香港o既playgroup越開越多﹐好多以音樂為主﹐仲以“學音樂能令孩子更聰明”之類o既廣告o黎來招攬顧客。超過份﹑勁無知!

其實如果你上網search一search﹐你就會搵到好多關於呢個效應點樣被無限放大。(yahoo知識都有!)等我o係度用廣...東同大家講講。

背景﹕
1993年﹐University of California 的幾位教授邀請了36位大學生參與研究﹐

What does music mean to me?

As a music educator, I always believe that if parents treat music education is as important as language education or math education, children will naturally grow up to:- read a piece of music as easily as they read a piece of news- sing a song aloud as comfortably as they recite a poem aloud- appreciate a piece of music from another culture just like they start to like an author's work from a

對音樂教育﹐家長(可以)有要求嗎﹖

我們這一代﹐很多都在香港的填鴨式教育中成長。現在填鴨式都變成過去式﹐學校要生存﹐大都標榜全人教育﹑雙語學習等等新的概念。 比起上一代﹐這一代的家長都對子女的教育有極高的要求﹔看見不滿﹐他們會立即向校方反映。子女的英文口語不流利﹐他們會致電英語老師﹐表達自己對英語運用對二十一世紀的重要﹔數學功課課題太容易﹐他們會寫封信給校長﹐要求為學習課題增添難度。當然少不了的是送子女上補習班﹐確保他們的成績達標/超標。 那音樂呢﹖ 當然﹐有很多家長仍然視音樂為可有可無的科目﹐所以他們不會對音樂科有要求。但不少家長很明白全人教育的意思包括藝術教育...﹔換言之﹐他們知道藝術比起語言和科學同樣重要。可惜的是﹐他們不懂得對音樂/藝術教育作出要求﹐所以他們只好盲目地要子女學好鋼琴﹔考好八級鋼琴作為培養子女音樂感的指標。 但家長們﹐請撫心自問﹐你們當中有大部份都在自己父母的強迫下學過樂器﹐

ECEA at NCTE 2009

It is hard to believe that the NCTE Annual Convention is just around the corner. The Early Childhood Education Assembly has certainly come a long way in a very short period of time. Having recently gained Assembly status, we are especially excited to catch up with all of you at the convention, and talk with you about ways of drawing attention to our early childhood group. Over the past several months the ECEA Board of Directors Officers, has been busy putting together sessions that focus on early childhood education. At the end of this post we will list various sessions to be held on the Day of ECE at the NCTE convention as well as share with you the ECE workshop we are sponsoring as a post convention event.



Please check back regularly for any updates.

Also, for your convenience in the side bar to the right of this post, you will find information regarding membership in the Early Childhood Education Assembly. We need your support so please share this site with your colleagues, follow us on Twitter, friend us on Facebook and help us to spread the word about our assembly.

We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia!

Vivian Vasquez and Mariana Souto-Manning

ECEA Chair and Assistant Chair

• A Day of Early Childhood at the NCTE Annual Convention - Click here and join us!
  

• November 23, 2009: Young Children Learning in Diverse Communities: Language and Literacy Strategies for Early Childhood Teachers - A Day-Long Workshop. Click here to register.
  

WORKSHOP DETAILS:
Session: W.01 - 9:00 am to 3:30 pm 11/23/2009
Format: Day-Long Workshop
Room: Convention Center/Room 201B, Level 2 Topic: Other

In this workshop, ten early childhood educators will engage teachers in exploring issues and ideas to support language and literacy learning in preschools, kindergartens, and primary grades across cultural and linguistic communities.

Presenter:
Gloria Boutte, University of South Carolina, Columbia , 'Teaching African American English Speakers: Expanding Educators and Student Repertoires'

Anne Haas Dyson, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Celia Genishi, Teachers College, Columbia University, 'Writing . . . Talking and Playing Between the Lines'

Maria Paula Ghiso, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia , 'Writing that Matters: Explorations in First Grade Authorship'

Susi Long, University of South Carolina, Columbia , 'Home and Community Literacies: Strategies for Learning about Children Beyond Schools'

Julia Lopez-Robertson, University of South Carolina, Columbia , 'Literature Circles: Inviting Critical Conversations in All Classrooms'

Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers College, Columbia University and Vivian Vasquez, American University, Washington, DC
'Critical Literacies in Early Childhood Classrooms'

Dinah Volk, Cleveland State University, Ohio , 'Home and Community Literacies: Strategies for Learning about Children Beyond Schools'

Blue man group all-in-one

I'm awed by the performances of the Blue Man Group. Yet I haven't played any of them to children because after all, the Blue Men are quite weird and scary looking for children.

Their performance represents the essence of creativity - creating extraordinary out of the most ordinary. Their most famous stage performance includes "paint drumming" and music-making on PVC tubes.

Here's a short clip

何謂美感﹖(What is Aesthetic Education?)

"Aesthetic Education" 是西方藝術教育文獻裡常見的題目。“Aesthetic Education” 通常包括音樂﹑視覺藝術﹑戲劇與舞蹈 - 透過不同種類的藝術媒體﹐小孩子開始培養他們的審美觀。“美”的定義很空泛﹐我喜歡的音樂﹐你未必喜歡﹔但我不能說我是對﹐你是錯。昨晚﹐我在準備 presentation 的時候嘗試給 “Aesthetic”(美感)一個定義﹔想了良久﹐我都想不出來。既然我不能解釋它是什麼﹐我便倒過來說它”不是“什麼。我想到三點﹕1) 美感不是一種知識。我們不能單憑上樂理課或熟讀美術歷史而變有美感。再者﹐知識會被遺忘﹐美感卻沒有時間性﹔即使身體老去﹑記憶褪去﹐美感依然健全。所以一個懂得顏色構造或考獲八級樂理的人﹐未必等於審美能力超強。2) 美感不是一種技能。所謂熟能生巧﹐技能上的進步通常依賴不停的練習﹔一旦疏于練習﹐技能便會退步。在我身邊﹐

WHY PIANO?

"When should my child start piano lesson?" - This is the most frequent question that I get from parents. First of all, perhaps we need to ask ourselves: why PIANO? Why not violin, or African drum, or erhu? We are the piano-generation. Our moms enroled us to attend piano lesson when we were around 6 years old; whether we liked it or not, we would have attained some qualification in piano-playing (

Year 1 music: African songs

Music is one of the most natural channels to lead children in to the world of another culture. Young children, especially, enjoy songs from African heritage. Both African and African-American songs invovle a lot of percussion and movements, which makes them very suitable for lower primary music lesson. The lyrics are usually quite easy to pick up; in fact, many African songs are performed in the

Shidonni - draw a pet, bring it to life~~

Shidonni is a cool site - I had fun playing it. Children can draw anything onto that board and it'd turn into a "pet" which would move around. You can even assign an animal sound to your pet.I've registered to it with the blog's e-mail. You may wanna login using the following username and password first, before you register for it.Name: teacher-monicaPassword: creativityHave fun~

Cool iphone widget

Scenario:Your right hand is holding your child's hand, he/she is whining about feeling bored in the MTR; your iphone is in your left hand. What do you do? Do you have enough cool widget handy to keep your kids occupied? (in a fun and educational way - popping virtual bubble wrap is NOT one, obviously.)Check this out:The application is inspired by the famous Jackson Pollock website:Even Steve Jobs

INTERACTIVE ART GALLERY sponsored by HSBC

Many times, artists avoid being "commerical." Some extreme advocacy spreads the notion that making any connection to the commerical and business world pollutes the artistic industry.As a music educator, I don't agree with this at all. Many world-class corporates are aware of the responsiblities of corporate citizenship. They provide funding to support different creative projects and artistic

Online arts galleries for children (UK, USA, CANADA)

Visual art was never my favorite subject; now I regret that I didn't learn to draw. Although I don't have the skill to analyse the techniques used behind paintings, I like looking at paintings at art galleries. When I visit museums abroad, I realize how a lot of them has resources for children available. Those little guide books usually include child-friendly games and assignments that trigger

Online games for parents (for relaxation's sake)

Dear Parents,When you have put your children to sleep, what time is it? Do you still leave time to yourself? Perhaps you'd watch the late night news or update your facebook status before you go to sleep. I do admire all of you; you have to dedicate so much time to your children and you hardly leave "alone" time to yourself.I have almost forgotten about this site before I accidentally run into it

Professional development

There are many associations around the world (well, actually, mostly based in US) that gather teachers and professionals who share the same interest. As for me, certainly, I'm delighted to have found different associations that support early childhood education and creativity education. Here are a few of them which I always refer to.

1) Early Childhood Music and Movement Association

2)

Websites for new parents and parents-to-be

In this blog, I'd like to share with you websites which expecting parents are interested in.The Association For Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology and Health is one of the rare formal association that concerns the well-being and psychological state of pregnant women and fetus' development. There are some articles on this webpage which you may find helpful, though not all of them are peer-reviewed or

雞腳上的小屋 (The Hut on Fowl's Legs)

女巫似乎是童話裡不能缺少的一角。如果童話世界只有幸福快樂﹐沒有問題的話﹐王子會變成一個可有可無的嘍囉﹔沒有歹角﹐成就不了英雄。而公主如果生在一個沒有毒蘋果﹑毒針和惡毒姊妹的故事裡﹐她們的生平根本不值得被記載下來。童話故事是童年回憶裡美好的一環﹐多少小男孩﹑小女孩都渴望過自己是故事裡的王子公主。我們也感謝童話故事﹐原來從小﹐我們已知道世界其實不完美 - 無論如何﹐壞人總會存在。各國的小孩子印象中的巫各有不同。在蘇聯﹐Baba Yaga 是最家傳戶曉的代表。她的身世是個迷﹐她住在長有一支雞腳的小屋裡﹐有的故事說這小屋沒有窗戶和門﹐Baba Yaga 平常通常靠煙囪出入。有的故事卻說她專門吃小孩子﹔當她一知道有小孩子在森林迷路﹐她便會轉動小屋﹑打開窗戶﹐為的是方便狩獵...人們對Baba Yaga 的印象並不全部是壞的﹐因為有人深信她其實是一個身居森林深處的寂寞老婦人，

THE NAPPING HOUSE by Audrey and Don Wood

This is a silly story about sleeping people and animal on the bed in this "Napping House."The words are carefully written so that you can read it in a 2/4 rhythm, the story begins with the following lines:There is a housea napping house,where everyone is sleeping.I'd say it's a great story for kindergarten kids. Though I'm using this book in my Year 2 music class as source for class

OWL BABIES by Martin Waddell and Patrick Benson

This is one of the BEST children books I've come across. It is very difficult to have toddlers sit down for a 10-minutes story, but this story has never failed me once. It's not just pictures, in fact, the colours used in the illustration is quite dark (same tone as the cover).The story is quite long comparing to normal picture books for toddlers, but they love the storyline so much; that's why