In this final week, we consider how regular music practice with children heading into Year R can link to the development as set out in the non-statutory guidance, Development Matters. We will also look at the end of Year R Early Learning Goals, as set out in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Statutory Framework, and how music can support these.
Watch the video above as Boogie Mites Trainer, Tasha, talks us through the changes to the Early Learning Goals and Development Matters.
First, let’s look at how music/musical behaviours can be linked to development, and where these are highlighted in Development Matters.
Music in Development Matters
3 & 4 year olds will be learning to:
Communication & Language
- Pay attention to more than one thing at a time, which can be difficult.
- Use a wider range of vocabulary.
- Sing a large repertoire of songs.
Physical Development
- Use large-muscle movements to wave flags and streamers (or, in our case, scarves and musical props).
- Increasingly be able to use and remember sequences and patterns of movements which are related to music and rhythm.
Maths
- Extend and create ABAB patterns, by engaging children in following and inventing movement and music patterns, such as clap, clap, stamp.
Expressive Arts & Design
- Listen with increased attention to sounds.
- Respond to what they have heard, expressing their thoughts and feelings.
- Remember and sing entire songs.
- Sing the pitch of a tone sung by another person (‘pitch match’).
- Sing the melodic shape (moving melody, such as up and down, down and up) of familiar songs.
- Create their own songs, or improvise a song around one they know.
- Play instruments with increasing control to express their feelings and ideas.
Children in Reception will be learning to:
Communication & Language
- Understand how to listen carefully and why listening is important.
- Learn new vocabulary (e.g. in music: ‘percussion’, ‘tambourine’).
- Listen carefully to rhymes and songs, paying attention to how they sound.
- Learn rhymes, poems and songs.
Physical Development
- Develop the overall body strength, coordination, balance and agility needed to engage successfully with future physical education sessions and other physical disciplines including dance.
- Develop their small motor skills so that they can use a range of tools competently, safely and confidently. (At Boogie Mites, we would consider small instruments within this category).
Maths
- Count objects, actions and sounds, (through) singing counting songs and number rhymes.
- Understand the ‘one more than/one less than’ relationship between consecutive numbers, (by) making predictions about what the outcome will be in stories, rhymes and songs if one is added, or if one is taken away.
Understanding The World
- Compare and contrast characters from stories, including figures from the past (including) introducing characters, including those from the past using songs.
- Explore the natural world around them (by) offering opportunities to sing songs and join in with rhymes and poems about the natural world.
Expressive Arts & Design
- Listen attentively, move to and talk about music, expressing their feelings and responses.
- Sing in a group or on their own, increasingly matching the pitch and following the melody.
- Explore and engage in music making and dance, performing solo or in groups.
Phonological Awareness
Within Boogie Mites School Ready Programme, we focus on helping children to develop their phonological awareness, by looking at the skills developed in Phase 1 phonics. These are highlighted in Development Matters as follows:
3 & 4 years olds will be learning to:
- Develop their phonological awareness, so that they can: – spot and suggest rhymes – count or clap syllables in a word – recognise words with the same initial sound, such as money and mother.
Children in Reception will be learning to:
- Blend sounds into words, so that they can read short words made up of known letter – sound correspondences.
Early Learning Goals
The revised Early Learning Goals make fewer specific references to music, but that isn’t to say that they can’t be met through regular music practise:
Communication & Language
These Early Learning Goals make specific references to listening attentively and responding in group interactions. All musical interactions require children to listen, and there are many opportunities arising from this to respond through actions or discussion, where music provokes a reaction or conversation.
Personal, Social & Emotional
These Early Learning Goals require children to work and play cooperatively and take turns with others, regulate their behaviour, and follow instructions involving several ideas or actions, all of which is met through children copying actions to a song, handling instruments and following instructions about how to play them, all whilst exercising some self-control when faced with the exciting prospect of having musical props and instruments to explore.
Physical Development
Handling instruments and moving to music provides excellent opportunities for children to work towards these Early Learning Goals, as they negotiate space safely, move energetically through dancing, and use a range of small tools, such as shakers, scarves and rhythm sticks.
Literacy
Songs are a great way to reinforce the concept of story-telling, and to introduce new vocabulary to children that they might not otherwise have opportunities to explore. This supports the Literacy Early Learning Goals, as children retell stories and narratives using their own words and recently introduced vocabulary, and – when discussing the narrative of a song, anticipate – where appropriate – key events in stories.
Mathematics
Music and maths are intrinsically linked. Music is made up of recurring patterns, and number sequences, and through counting and moving to a steady beat or rhythm, singing songs involving numbers, repeating number sequences as they count the beat, children are working towards the Mathematics Early Learning Goals of recognising the pattern of the counting system, exploring and representing patterns, and comparing quantities in different contexts.
Understanding The World
Music is a universal language and provides superb opportunities to help children to develop an awareness and understanding of other people, cultures and the world around them. Exploring songs and music from a rich variety of cultural and geographical backgrounds, as well as music from a variety of eras helps children to work towards the Understanding the World Early Learning Goal, as they explore similarities and differences between different religious and cultural communities, between life in this country and life in other countries, between things in the past and now, as well as exploring the world around them.
Expressive Arts And Design
Music is an expressive art in its own right, and therefore children explore many of these Early Learning Goals when they engage with rich musical opportunities. Through singing a range of well-known nursery rhymes and songs, performing songs and rhymes, moving in time with music, and making use of props and materials as they explore home-made instruments, children are given the creative freedom to express themselves and explore their musical potential.
Music Is Fun!
And having considered all the links to the EYFS curriculum we haven’t even mentioned the most important thing of all – music making activities are great fun! Not only for the children by for the teachers, parents and wider family too. It provides a perfect vehicle for encouraging home practice and safe in the knowledge that the more repetition of music-making opportunities the better for developmental benefits.
The changes to the framework and the non-statutory guidance help to highlight just how important regular music practice is, and the important role it plays in children’s development. Music is a skill for life, and rich opportunities to explore, play and learn through music will give every child access to the musician’s advantage. The musician’s advantage is referred to by neuroscientists who conduct studies to try and understand why musicians have bigger, better brains! You can read articles on our blog about such studies and follow Anita Collins an internationally renowned researcher of music and neuroscience via her Facebook channel Bigger, Better, Brains. We like to say Boogie, Bigger, Better, Brains!!
Remember to go back to our previous 4 blogs in the series, to see how the changes to the EYFS regulations and the non-statutory guidance have impacted music for different age groups.
We have some online practitioner training for our School Ready (3-5’s) Music Programme starting in October. Click the button below to find out more about our upcoming training. If you express an interest in our Autumn training during August you will receive a 10% discount code to use when booking in September.
We’ve created 7 Areas of Learning posters, which you can download, print off and display in your setting.
