Rachel Nunez

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EDAR 104 Semester 2 ACU Week 7

Music, Dance, Drama
Dance:

Italian Caf: Jukebox

Movement to rhythm. Teacher led actions, Quick discussion about leadership, then student led.

Bridge at Mostar
Music: Jon Madin. Available from VOSA website.
Dance:
AGE: For prep-2.

The Longer The Faster

Holland: Grades 2-4.

Mexican Shuffle
Mexico: Grades 5-6
Singing: Melody and Harmony

Banuwa (Liberian Lullaby).

Harmony singing.

The Bat Song.

I Am A Fine Musician
Explore untuned percussion

Row, row, row your boat

Kookaburra
Frre Jacques (French)
Songs on ukulele:

Lover, You Dont Treat Me No Good No More

Weekly Reflection One

This week was the first week of music, dance and drama and even before I walked into the classroom,
I was plagued with fear and nerves about my first class. This was mainly because of my lack of
confidence in my singing and dancing abilities and fear that people will judge me if I mess up the

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words. However, this fear was quickly shed when we were all immersed in music and dance when we
did the Mexican shuffle and when we sang along to songs such as the bat song and row, row, row your
boat. Terry created a playful environment when he taught the Mexican shuffle through his kind,
inclusive attitude and engaging modelling of the actions in the dance. Through a playful environment,
it promoted participation for all and allowed for the class to feel confident to engage in the
movements in the dance which is one of the positives of this teaching approach to dance (Schiller &
Meiners, 2012). Another positive about this class was allowing us to be immersed in music since it
allowed for people, like myself, to feel more confident in my abilities. DeVries (2004) highlights how
implementing music into classrooms has a positive impact on the students who are more afraid to take
part in class and it helps them become more confident learners since it also allows for more
opportunities for student socialisation.

ACTIVITY
Age Group;
2
Materials required
Songs from different countries such as Tic-Tic-Tac by Carrapicho.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSWrUC8uwQk
Or
Bamboleo by the Gypsy Kings
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mifnMC_Kn1Q
Activity content:
Music and dance is a great way for kids to interact with different cultures. So, for this activity, kids
will just interact with the music without any structure and then the teacher will gradually introduce
dance techniques.
-

This activity can be done once a class over a few weeks where the teacher just introduces a

new song from different countries.

The teacher will put on music and the children will be spread out around the class
First the teacher will teach one technique such as:

Clapping on beat or moving side to side on beat

Then when the children feel comfortable with the movement, the teacher can add on another
movement.

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-

The teacher will model the movement in front of the class and tell the students when theyre

moving on to the next movement.

For younger students, I think 3 should be the maximum amount of movements introduced to
them.

Extension of activity into student creation;

-

Students can just free dance to music, they can grab costumes or props to create a

performance based on the dance.

Students can go into a circle formation and while the song is playing, one student can go into
the circle, do a movement or dance steps for 5 seconds and then choose another student to go

in the middle.
The teacher could also scream DANCE BREAK and allow the students to freestyle dance

After the song and dance, the class can regroup and discuss the rhythm of the song and how it may be
different from the music on the radio. I think itd be a great activity to expose students to music
genres that they may not be exposed to yet.

EDAR 104 Semester 2 ACU Week 8

Music, Dance, Drama
Dance:

Mexican Shuffle
Revise dance and add some refinements in movements.

La Mariposa Bolivia
Partner dancing

Sur Le Pont DAvignon

DANCERS DO IT THIS WAY AND THEN THEY DO IT THAT WAY
Singing: Melody and Harmony

Revise Banuwa
Revise The Bat Song.
Half the Greatest Noises

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This song is good for the actions (which Im sure you remember) and for letting the children make up
the noises part of the song.
Percussion and play

Eensy Weensy Spider.

Actions and singing a discussion and experimentation.
Percussion experimenting with sounds

Tree Song. (and Little Peter Rabbit)

Make up actions for all sung parts of the song.

Row, Row, Row your boat -Ukulele

Kookaburra
Frre Jacques (French)
PUPPET MAKING

Weekly Reflection
This week we learnt some new songs but the ones that stood out to me the most was Half the
Greatest Noises and Sur Le Pont DAvignon since they both allowed us to experiment with sounds
and movement when a student had to choose an animal, job or sound and then either make a noise
based on what theyve chosen or two actions. Music and dance are areas that most children are
naturally born with, from 12-24 months, children are actively engaging with song and movement as
they spontaneously break out into songs theyve just created or are showing their interest in the music
with swaying and clapping (Pound & Harrison, 2003). Incorporating the activities done this week
into an early education or primary setting will nourish this natural ability students have and allow
them to be experimental with what kind of movement or sound they would like to do, another benefit
of using songs that use actions and movements is that they help develop motor skills in children
(DeVries, 2004). We also made sock puppets this week, which also took a lot of gross motor skills to
complete as we needed to cut materials and glue them on to the sock.

ACTIVITY
Age group:
2-5

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Materials:
Large space
Lesson content:
This game will focus on improvisation, sounds and movement. The point of the game is to get the
noise loud and ridiculous by the time its at the start again.
-

Children will start in a circle formation.

Explain to the students that you will start with a small, simple sound and that the sound will
move on to the person to the right and who will pass it on and so forth around the circle.
However, when its their turn to make the noise, they will take a step into the circle, make the

noise and join the circle again.

Students should mimic the noise made at the start and pass it on. This should happen

automatically if youve explained the game enough to the students.

When it has, then you can start again but this time, each person needs to exaggerate the
original sound a little so by the time it goes back to the start, the noise has become huge and
exaggerated.

Creative extension:
-

Students can extend the duration of the noise little by little. They can start with the same

pitch but then make it go higher.

As one noise is going around the circle, add another to keep the flow of noises going.
Add physical movements to the noises too, each child should be able to interpret the noise as

they like.
You can have themes to the noises, such as animals or emotions, and the children could do
actions based on those themes.

EDAR 104 Semester 2 ACU Week 9

Music, Dance, Drama
Scarf Juggling
Dance:

The Jiffy Mixer

Partner dance

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The Boanopstekker
One student goes into the centre and says hello in another language!
Singing: Melody and Harmony
Revise Banuwa
Revise The Bat Song.
Revise Half the Greatest Noises

Inanay Gupa Wana

Puppet performance

Weekly Reflection
This week I achieved something that I struggled with throughout my entire childhood to do, I juggled
three scarfs at the same time. Terrys teaching catered to multiple learner types through his modelling
of each step to juggle which catered to visual learners and by the way he vocalised each step so the
linguistic learners would understand I personally am a kinaesthetic learner so I began to understand
the steps fully when I was practicing my juggling but I was glad after the 20 minutes, I could juggle
three scarfs at the same time. In doing activities like this with children, it helps to develop fine motor
skills. Terry mentioned how, as future teachers, we have committed to be lifetime learners and must
work hard to develop skills in areas that we may find challenging. It has been shown that some
teachers use music in early education classrooms however, they do not teach it since they believe they
lack skills in that area (DeVries, 2004). This lesson promoted outcome four of the Early Years
Learning Framework as it promoted the idea that children are confident and involved learners since it
took persistence and commitment to complete the task at hand (Australian Government Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009).

ACTIVITY
Age:
4 -7
Materials Needed:

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Bean bags, scarfs

Lesson Plan:
-

The children will first choose whether they would like to juggle with bean bags or scarfs and

spread out across the room

The teacher will first model and explain each step and after, the children can start practicing.
Teacher should walk around the class and help the students who may be struggling and make

them slowly build up on how many scarfs/bean bags theyre using to juggle.
Allow for a minimum of 20 minutes for this activity

Creative extension:
-

MOVEMENTS: Children could possibly experiment with other movements while they are
throwing bean bags/ scarves into the air. Only one item would be thrown so its easier for the
children to handle but when they throw the item in their air, they can clap, stomp or turn
around while its still airborne. The teacher could call out what action they need to do when
the bag is in the air.

SONG: The children when theyve mastered juggling, the teacher can put on a song and they
can start juggling to the tempo of the song.

This activity will promote hand-eye coordination, gross motor skills and spatial awareness.
After the activity is done, children can discuss with the teacher what they found challenging
about the activity and what they liked about it.

EDAR 104 Semester 2 ACU Week 10

Music, Dance, Drama
Dance/Song:

Come Follow Me
Song/Dance suitable for 4yo and up. Following/ leader game
Good Morning (Denise Gagne adapted)

Circle game facing partners.

Chilli
Circle game, or spread out around the room. Make up actions.

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Sarasponda (Dutch)
I Will Be Your Friend
Revise: The Tree Song.

New Song: Bill Grogans Goat. Used parachute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMr_-J30lFk
Drama
Divide into groups of three or four and take one or two nursery rhymes to create a play.
One stipulation is that there needs to be a musical element to the production.
Rehearse and perform.

Weekly Reflections
We began this week by learning some new songs and dance to add to our repertoire of activities we
can use with our future students. Come Follow Me allowed for students to become leaders in the
song/dance when one person acted out an action for the class to follow while the Chilli song/dance
promoted improvisation when we needed to think of an inspiration to make actions to. We split into 4
groups and worked together to make a play based on the nursery rhyme chosen by each group. At
first, the people in my group and I were a little hesitant to begin sharing ideas since I think there was
an overwhelming fear that we would be judged if the idea was considered silly or not good enough.
However, when we started discussing ideas, it was as if they couldnt stop and we were created a play
based on the Three Blind Mice. Drama is an important area to teach since it promotes the physical,
emotional, cognitive and language development of students (Richards, n.d.) through the collaboration
of ideas between students and the performance that takes place. This activity links into outcome one
of the Early Years Learning Framework since it promotes safe environments where children feel
secure and supported but it also builds confident and knowledgeable self-identities through dramatic
play (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for the
Council of Australian Governments, 2009).

ACTIVITY
Age:
2-5

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Materials needed:
Cards with different form of dance written on them, music (nursery rhymes or anything suitable) and
a large space
Lesson plan:
-

This activity is all about dance and group work. Before the group is split up, the teacher will
play a few songs and talk to the children about which song they would like to create a dance

to, when one song is chosen, split the class into 4 groups.
Each group will choose 2 cards (more for the older kids) and make a quick dance to the music
chosen by the class. (For the younger kids, just get them to choose one card and then have

them just perform in front of the class)

When each group is ready, have them perform to the class. This will teach the students not
only about performing but also about cheering on their peers who are performing.

Creative extension:
-

Children can choose their own songs and even get costumes to fit different genres of music.
Teachers can turn this into a dramatic play if they put emotions on the cards and in their
performance, the emotions chosen must be included.

EDAR 104 Semester 2 ACU Week 11

Music, Dance, Drama
Dance:

How do you doo- tee doo.

Did you ever see a lassie.

Repertoire
Task:
To choose 5 songs/rhymes from the pages and work into a
presentation that would be useful in an early childhood centre.

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Weekly Reflection
This weeks class was mostly dedicated to creating an activity that we can use in early
childhood/primary classes. We were given pages from the Merrily, Merrily book that contained
nursery rhymes and we chose one to base our activity on. I personally adored seeing how everyone
created a game or dance from a nursery rhyme since people used either used the lyrics or the tempo of
the song to base their activity on. This activity also enabled us to become teachers in the class and
take on a leadership role when each person presented their own personal game/dance. Battisti (1999)
argues that it is vital for music teachers to have strong leadership skills for students to thrive in their
music education. Through this activity in class, it allowed us to become more comfortable with the
idea of teaching music and movement and it also highlighted all the possibilities available when you
see music as a resource for meaning-making activities. It also proved to us how music activities like
this one promotes student socialisation and collaboration since we worked in a group to help each
other out, Morin (2000) describes this as cooperative music play since we all assisted each other
when we struggled to make up actions for certain parts of the nursery rhyme (DeVries, 2004).

ACTIVITY
Age:
5
Materials needed:
Large space / instrumental background music
Lesson content:
-

Students will all stand up around the room but all facing one way so they can see the

leader of the game.

The teacher will begin the class by modelling the game Simon Says where one
person stands in front of the class and says Simon Says HANDS ON HEAD! and
each child must do it but if the person says HANDS ON HEAD without Simon

Says at the start, the children must not do it.

After, a child will go to the front of the room and make up their own action to do that
the class must model if they say Simon Says before the action.

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Then, the leader will continue to change after each childs turn which will be chosen
by the current leader.

Creative extension:
For the actions: the actions can include noises as well such as Simon Says do your
best roar! or expressions such as Simon Says do an angry face! or even, Simon
Says sing a random song! Allowing them to choose any type of music or dramatic
movements which will allow for more options and allows them to experiment more with
their options and it doesnt only make children stick to actions such as touch your nose
or pat your head.
For class set up: Instead of the class facing one way, the children could be placed in a
circle so they can see the action being performed much easier. They can possibly have the
leader be in the middle of the circle and when its time for the student to choose the next
one, they can quickly run behind another student to indicate that theyre the next leader.
The teacher may also choose to implement a musical aspect to the entire activity by
making Simon Says into a song so it combines both music and movement in the
activity and create a repetition in the song so it goes:
2 x Simon Says actions, 1 x action without Simon Says
This use of repetition can help children understand what is coming next in the song!
To end the lesson, students engage in discussion with the teacher and discuss other
actions they couldve chosen so then the next time they play the game, they have even
more options to choose from. They can also discuss what they like about the game and
what they dislike.
EYLF:
This activity relates to
Outcome four: children are confident and involved learners which emphasises how
children develop dispositions for learning such as cooperation, creativity, imagination and
confidence (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and
Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009).

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WEEK 12 EDAR 104 Semester 2 ACU Week 12

Music, Dance, Drama
Dance:
Snake Dance: Arabic
(no music)
Singing:
Revise: Half the Greatest Noises
The Pig Rap
Rhythm and Percussion (Introduction)
Marimbas:
These have large bars with easy to read notes and large beaters so children of almost any age can learn
to play.

Ninety Nine OClock

Can You Click Your Tongue.

Weekly Reflection
This was the final week of our music, dance and drama classes and I believe everyone in the class has
become more comfortable singing and dancing, this was shown when we revisited the Mexican
shuffle and I felt more comfortable being myself while dancing. We learnt a new dance, the snake
dance, and then Terry taught The Pig Rap to us. The Pig Rap showed how nursery rhymes can be
manipulated in several ways like in the genre of the song and how it can be manipulated into a play
(this was also highlighted in the last few weeks).
Terry then allowed us to experiment with the marimbas. We all played the marimbas with no real
structure for a few minutes and in the activities/songs Terry sang and played with us, we were invited
to do our own musical solo. This promoted learning through play through our improvisation, creation
and collaboration with other students (Australian Government Department of Education, Employment

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and Workplace Relations for the Council of Australian Governments, 2009) and allowing us to just
create our own musical solo in class, allowed for a range of cognitive processes to happen while we
used repetition, developed our music and through the closure we chose (e.g. Finishing with a loud
bang or gradually fading the music out) (Barrett, 2012).

ACTIVITY
Age Group;
2-5
Materials required;
Percussion instruments, maracas, ukuleles.
Description of activity and method of delivery;
Children will sing along to the I am a Fine Musician song and do a solo with their instruments
- Children will choose an instrument that they want before the activity begins the teacher may give
them time so they can experiment with the noises the instrument makes.
- The teacher will go around and ask students the name of the instrument and show the rest of the
class the sound their instrument makes. If they dont know, the teacher can remind them or they can
show how the instrument works.
- You can then teach I Am a Fine Musician to the students. First teaching them line by line and
have them repeat each line until theyre able to sing the full song with you.
1.
2.
3.
4.
-

I am a fine mus-i-cian, I practise every day and

people come from miles around just to hear me play my
*INSTRUMENT* my *INSTRUMENT* they love to hear my *INSTRUMENT*
*IMPROVISATION*
You can implement the improvisation part two ways:
1. Have each child who has a drum perform together during the improvisation part
2. go around the circle and have each child individually perform a solo

Extension:
-

You could change the song

I am a fine mus-i-cian, I practise every day and people come from miles around just to hear me
play and then add my solo, my solo, they love to hear my solo
Or change it to we are fine musicians

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-

When children are doing their solo, they can incorporate dance moves or song.
They can add a performance element if they create a whole persona into their solo. For
example, if the instrument they have is a ukulele, they can pretend its an electric guitar and

dress up like a rock star.

Have the class split into pairs and allow them time to create a small performance together
during the solo part to promote children collaboration

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References:

Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations for

the Council of Australian Governments,. (2009). The Early Years Learning Framework for
Australia (pp. 1-47). Commonwealth of Australia
Barrett, M. S. (2012) Belonging, being and becoming musical: An introduction to childrens
musical world. In S. Wright, Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 158-174).
Frenchs Forest: Pearson Australia.
Battisti, F. L. (1999). Teaching music the leadership component. Music Educators Journal,
85(6), 38.
DeVries, P. (2004). The Extramusical Effects of music lessons on pre-schoolers. Australian
Journal of Early Childhood, 29(2), 6-10. Retrieved from
https://leo.acu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/1783535/mod_resource/content/1/Article%20The
%20ext musical%20effects%20of%20music%20lessons%20on%20preschoolers.pdf
Richards, R. (n.d.). Understanding the language of DRAMA. [Word File]. Retrieved from:
https://leo.acu.edu.au/mod/resource/view.php?id=1379835
Schiller, W & Meiners, J. (2012) Dance: Moving beyond steps to ideas In S. Wright,
Children, Meaning-Making and the Arts (2nd ed., pp. 158-174). Frenchs Forest: Pearson
Australia.
Pound, L., & Harrison, C. (2003). Supporting musical development in the early years (pp. 2040, 145-150). Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press. Retrieved from:
https://leo.acu.edu.au/pluginfile.php/1783530/mod_resource/content/1/P%2CH%2C
%2003%20Pound%2C%20Harrison
%20Supporting_musical_development_in_the_early_years_pp._20-40_145-150_.pdf