I am missing here "the sharpenings". They pretend to be interested and look like they want to update their knowledge, butv really they don't give a penny about it!!
Friday 17 November 2017
Tuesday 14 November 2017
THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC AND SINGING IN EARLY DEVELOPMENT
We both found this article so interesting and close to our hearts as this is what we do on a daily basis with our pupils.
From the TES
The importance of music and singing in early development cannot be underestimated
11th November 2017 at 14:00
The Ofsted chief inspector is right: nursery rhymes are hugely important, writes one educationist. But they’re also just the tip of a developmental iceberg
Jack and Jill still have a role to play, according to Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman, who bemoans the fact that children aren’t learning nursery rhymes anymore – neither, it appears, at home nor in school. Ms Spielman’s views were reported in a light-hearted piece in The Sunday Times, which also dedicated an editorial to amusing updated versions of old favourites.
It was all good fun and, to be fair, The Sunday Times also quoted Amanda Spielman’s serious point on the topic: “Humpy Dumpty may seem old-fashioned, but children who can sing a song and know a story off by heart aged four are better prepared for school. Nursery rhymes provide a collective experience – and teach a little bit of social history to boot.”
Amen to that! People such as Ms Spielman and me aren’t nostalgically hankering after some kind of half-remembered golden childhood when we all sang songs at our mother’s knee in lush meadows in the summer sun and then headed indoors for cake and lashings of custard. We’re deploring the loss of a powerful contributor to children’s early learning.
I suspect that, like me, Amanda is old enough to remember those wonderful BBC Music and Movement radio programmes, which did precisely what the title suggests. They brought those two elements together: just as, in that “golden age” of childhood, parents would sing catchy, often nonsensical but always strongly rhythmic songs and encourage their infant to clap hands, stamp feet – at root, to respond physically to the rhythm of the music.
'Music used to teach'
There’s science underlying this. Called Eurhythmics (not to be confused with Annie Lennox and David Stewart’s pop duo) and expounded by Emile Jacques-Dalcroze, it is “a system of rhythmical physical movements to music used to teach musical understanding or for therapeutic purposes”. I can only assume that Professor Dalcroze remembered and later codified how he had himself learned in his infancy from music and rhythm.
Funded by National Lottery money around the Millennium, my wife ran some after-school Eurhythmics courses for five-year-olds. The differences she observed in children in only a matter of weeks, while they learned to respond and move to music, were remarkable: she (SEN-trained, as it happened) also reckoned she could spot, among those who found such responses difficult, children likely to encounter a range of Specific Learning Difficulties. Sadly, after two seasons the lottery money ran out and the local authority in question declared itself unable to continue the courses.
Why do children respond physically to music? Because they listen to it. And the more they enjoy such response – and the better they get at it – the better they get at listening. In 2017, when too many young children are perhaps entertained and pacified by being given screens to watch, that is arguably of vital importance. We have much work to do on children’s listening skills.
Nor do the positives end with rhythm and response. There is the whole business of singing in the first place. There’s copious and still growing evidence of the contribution of singing to wellbeing: why not catch children and give them the habit young, before they get into the nonsense of either copying whining pop divas or deciding it’s uncool to sing at all?
Can just singing a few nursery rhymes with young children really make so much difference? Well, yes. Simple input, huge returns: that’s not a bad educational formula, is it?
Dr Bernard Trafford is a writer, educationalist and musician. He is a former headteacher and past chair of HMC. He tweets @bernardtrafford
To read more columns, view his back catalogue
Sunday 5 November 2017
USING PLAYDOUGH NOT ONLY IN KINDERGARTEN
Un interesante artículo sobre los beneficios de utilizar playdough en el aula, no solo de infantil. Nosotros somos partidarios de llevarlo al aula en diversas asignaturas, ya que su aplicación es versatil y ayuda a visualizar y expresar muchos conceptos, aparte de sus propiedades relajantes y que aportan un punto diferente a la clase convencional. Además es de realización casera.
Recetas para hacer playdough
Receta : Playdough colorida (cocción y larga duración)
Esta es una receta compartida en laweb Family Education.
Se necesita:
- 1 taza de agua
- 1 cucharada de aceite vegetal
- 1/2 taza de sal
- 1 cucharada de bitartrato de potasio (en la farmacia)
- Colorante de alimentos
- Cacerola
- 1 taza de harina.
Procedimiento:
1. Mezcla el agua, aceite, sal, bitartrato y colorante de alimentos en una cacerola, y calienta hasta que la mezcla esté templado.
2. Quita del calor y agrega la harina.
3. Revuelve, y amasa hasta que esté suave. El bitartrato hará que la masa dure 6 meses o más, por lo que no te convendrá omitir este ingrediente.
4. Almacena la masa en un recipiente hermético o en una bolsa sellada.
Receta : Playdough colorida (sin cocción , corta duración pero pueden hacerla los niños con ayuda del adulto y es muy divertido)
Precisas:
- 1 taza de sal
- 1 taza de agua
- 1/2 taza de harina más un poco adicional para amasar
- Una cacerola
Manos a la obra:
1. Mezcla la sal, el agua y la harina en un bol, amasa con suficiente harina para hacerla maleable. ¡Y listo!
Saturday 4 November 2017
LOOKING FORWARD TO CELEBRATING - VAMOS A CELEBRAR EN EL AULA
Ya tenemos elaborado el calendario de Science con las siguientes celebraciones previstas:
🙂Día de la Tierra 22 abril
🙂Día Internacional de la Mujer y la Niña en la ciencia 11 febrero
www.11defebrero.org y www.un.org
🙂Día del Medio Ambiente 5 junio
🙂Semana de la Programación (HOUR OF CODE) 4-10Diciembre www.code.org
🙂 La hora del Planeta 24 marzo Earth Hour www.wwf.es
🙂Hemos participado del 7 al 22 Octubre en la Semana Europea de la Programación. Ha sido una experiencia gratificante. www.codeweek.eu
#codeEU
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