Enhancing K Science and Math with
Music and Movement
Maryann “Mar.” Harman
BA Music Ed
Masters Education (emphasis in Early Childhood)
Founder Music with Mar.®
Music uses more regions of the brain than any other activity. It only makes sense to use
music to aid in memory/retention of important facts and concepts.
This can be done through activities that include:
*Music (songs, rhythm activities)
*Movement (dance, drama, game)
The single most important thing in education is for each person to find at least one thing that
he or she connects to, gets excited by, feels motivated to spend more time with.”
He cites music as the first of the multiple intelligences to awaken in a person.
Five Strands of Science:
Personal Social
Physical
Earth
Life
Inquiry
The Sky (Start Each Day / Sky Glove)
*Basic answer to the question, “What’s up in the Sky?”
Tell Me The Word (Start Each Day / Sky Glove)
*Using visuals
*Tell them characteristics and they identify object
*Song reinforces children’s abilities
Four Seasons (Start Each Day / United)
Each year has four seasons and I can name them all
Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn; that’s Fall.
Habitat Scat (Music Makes It Memorable / United) Cards available as FREE download
*Scatting is a style used in Jazz; Scatting plays with syllables and sounds
^good for language; drills on rhyming
^It’s silly
Have pictures of Habitats up front
Have children put animal into its proper habitat
One card left empty. Discuss what can be there.
Many of these songs are available on United Streaming
BRAIN FACT
When faced with a problem to solve, students in music and the arts produce more possible
solutions, and their solutions are more creative, according to a nationwide study. - N. M.
Weinberger, “Arts Education Enhances ‘Real Life’ Personal Skills,” MuSICA Research
Notes, Spring 2000.
Sounds All Around (download / United)
*Use along with book “The Listening Walk”
*Go on a scavenger hunt for sounds
Create a list of what type sounds can be heard outside or in halls of school.
Put them in categories – environment, nature, voice, music
Take a 10 – 15 minute walk and have students listen for sounds, noting what they hear
When back in classroom, get people’s observances.
Combine with math by graphing.
What’s the Tool? (Download / United) Cards are a FREE download
*Identify the different tools we use and what we use them for
*Use book with pictures of the tools
*Have actual tools in room for them to use
BRAIN FACT
When children have training in the arts, they learn to pay attention, stay focused and to
resist distraction, leading to improvements in “fluid intelligence and in IQ”. Posner, 2009
Mr. Froggy’s Family (Mr. Froggy’s Family/Bk + 4/United)
*Metamorphosis
*Family values; Role model for boys
*Children sing “Ribbit, ribbit. Croak, croak, croak”
*Move hands from side to side; up and down - cross-lateral movement
*During instrumental, have children sit like a frog.
*reinforce spatial awareness
*works on gross motor skills.
Frog Hop and Stop (Music Makes Me Wanna Move)
*Gives children a chance to feel like a frog
*Control body
*Gross motor skills / spatial awareness
~Important for those who still can’t sit still for math sheets / reading
Living / Non-living (Music Makes it Memorable / United)
Song helps to review the basic characteristics of living / non-living.
*Make it playful.
*Can have list up on board and words.
*Children place words into the proper category.
Living things breath; living things grow
Living things reproduce; don’t you know?
If none of that happens, it’s just a thing.
It’s not alive – it’s non-living!
Have the nutrition plate up front. Children
can also put foods onto the plate
I Know a Smart Woman (Hear Me Sing; Watch Me Dance/School Specialty)
*Uses tune of “I Know An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly”
* Takes a different twist as the ‘smart woman’ eats from her food groups.
*Have a food pyramid up front with the children each receiving a food.
^ When their food is sung, they come up and place it on pyramid.
*Everyone joins in on “She’s a healthy woman!”
Extensions:
Graphing and Sorting
Personal preferences
Multicultural – different families eat different ways
Although Personal/Social is a strand of science, it
does not get the same amount of time given to it as
the more ‘cerebral’ strands.
BRAIN FACT The Movement Connection ~ ~
The area of the brain most associated with motor control is the cerebellum. It takes up nearly one
half of the brain’s neurons. (Ivry & Fiez, 2000). This is the same part of the brain that processes
learning.
Dance For the Food Groups (A Musical MARathon) Signs FREE download
*Review food groups
*Each group has its own dance; Children hear and remember dance from sound
*Use signs to chart underneath other foods
Force
Can do this without CD. (Download / United)
*Song states characteristics of force
*Repeats, getting faster each time
*This teaches brain to remember and pull information forward faster
Force is the push or pull that makes things go
Push hands forward, pull back
Gravity pulls things to the ground
Move body down to floor
Speed is moving fast or moving slow
Run is place fast, then slow
Up and down
Stand up / get down
Back and Forth
Lean back / then forward
Straight or around
Stand up straight, spin
It becomes boring and ineffective when the same
teaching pattern extends for a long period of time.
Teachers need to switch things up to keep everyone
involved. Different children learn different ways, but
all children need to move!
BRAIN FACT
A majority of the engineers and technical designers in Silicon Valley are also practicing
musicians. The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of the Public
Schools, Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum, 1997.
Certain, Probable, Impossible (Math with Mar./United) Probability and it’s silly!
Teach the concepts first; Have them respond:
“It’s true. It will happen.”
“That’s certain.”
“Not sure. It might happen.”
“That’s probable.”
“No way. It won’t happen.”
“That’s impossible.”
Children that are still pre-operational are not solid on this concept.
BRAIN FACT
To progress in math, children must have knowledge or procedures and concepts behind the
procedures. (Mink & Fraser 2005). Singing & Circle Games help to teach procedure.
Children as young as 4 mos seem to inherently connect geometry with sound. Spelke ‘08
I Can Count and Singo (unFROGettable / download)
*Use of piggyback song
*Drills on inner voice
Counting by Twos (Math with Mar.) CCSS counting by 2s, 5s, 10s
Everybody march. Move your feet. Count by 2s and keep the beat
2, 4 , 6, 8
2, 4, 6, 8
10, 12, 14, 16
10, 12, 14, 16
18, 20 ,22, 24
18, 20, 22, 24
26, 28, 30
26, 28, 30
Counting
2, 4, 6, 8
By 2s
10, 12
What’s next?
14, 16
Bring it on home!
18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30
Counting by Fives Similar to 2x, but uses a Dixie step.
Everybody march. Move your feet. Count by 5s to the Dixie beat
5, 10, 15, 20
5, 10, 15, 20
25, 30, 35, 40
45, 50, 55, 60
45, 50, 55, 60
65, 70, 75, 80
85
Counting
90
95
Bring it on home
100!
25, 30, 35, 40
65, 70, 75, 80
By fives
Grouping by Tens (Math with Mar.)
Get out your disco shoes and group by tens!
*Introduces to Disco
*Great cardio workout!
*Ooh Ooh sound energizes brain
*Relates math to fun
Count backwards – Say ABCs backwards
This wires the brain for subtraction
ZYXs (Hear Me Sing)
Have children do a stomp / clap alternating beat and just ‘feel’ it
5 Hip Hoppy Frogs
*Use of fingers and visualization of numbers
*Brain connection “5 takes up more space than 1”
What Animal’s Missing?
*Sequencing
*What is missing from sequence?
Visuals and labeling are excellent for children learning a new language.
Take animals and change their order. Are they still the same animals?
PIG
DUCK
COW
HORSE
GOAT
1, 2, ? , 4, 5
2, 4, 6, ? , 10
? , 6, 9, 12, 15
1, 3, ? , 7, 9
5, 10, 15, 20, ?
10, ?, 30, 40, 50
Up On Your Feet (Music Makes Me Wanna Move / Download)
*Controlling body = ability to sit and work on math worksheets
*Counting while moving
We Know Our Shapes (Start the Music/Math with Mar./United)
We know our shapes, so here’s what we’ll do. We’ll draw our shapes and sing them, too
A circle has one line, one line that’s round. Start at the top and make this sound-woop!
A square has 4 sides that are all the same. Say this sound four times to play this game Wo
A rectangle has 4 sides like a square. 2 are short; 2 are long.
Draw them in the air Wo Whew
A triangle is different; its sides are 3. Draw this shape and make this sound with me. Ting
The sound of the shape corresponds to the sides of the shape
Going On A Shape Hunt (Mr. Froggy’s Friends’ ABCs)
*Instead of a Bear Hunt, children look for shapes around room
*Be sure to look for objects that use the shapes
Shapes are not one-dimensional drawings that represent a shape.
They can be found in everyday objects.
Important to convey this to children
Finish the Pattern
Finish the pattern; patterns repeat. It’s something we can do that’s really neat
Listen to the pattern; figure it out. When we get to the missing word. say it with a shout!
A B C, A B C, A B ____
2, 4, 6, 8, 2, 4, 6, ____
Red, Blue, Red, Blue, Red, _____
Square, circle, rhombus,
square, circle, rhombus, square, circle _____
D,C,B,A, D,C,B, _______
3, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 3, 2 ____
La la li, la la li, la la _______
Loo Loo, la la Loo Loo, la _____
Do Dah Dah Dee, Do Dah Dah Dee,
Do Dah Dah ___
Many things are patterns; That’s very clear.The same 12 months; the same order each year
The hours go from 1 to 12; Then repeat we knoThe days of the week over and over they go
Finish the pattern, patterns repeat. Patterns repeat, patterns repeat, patt..
Have class make up their own patterns and complete them. This helps with tessellations
and other math concepts. Put patterns on the board or on the floor and have them
complete them.
BRAIN FACT Music is children’s first patterning experience and helps engage
them in mathematics even when they don’t recognize the activities as mathematics. Geist,
Geist & Kuznik, ‘12
LIST OF RELATED CITATIONS
“Enhancing K Science and Math with
Music and Movement”
Maryann Harman, MA ED
Brewer, Chris (2008) “Soundtracks for Learning. Using Music in the Classroom”.
LifeSounds Educational Services, Bellingham, WA
Campbell, D. (2000). The Mozart Effect for Children. Is Music Fundamental? Audiotape.
The Children’s Group, William Morrow.
Goleman, Daniel (1995). “Emotional Intelligence”. Audiotape. Los Angeles, CA. Audio
Renaissance Tapes.
Hannaford, C. (1995). “Smart Moves: Why Learning is Not All in the Head”. Arlington,
VA. Great Oceans Publishing.
Jensen, E. (2000). “Music with the Brain in Mind”. San Diego, CA. The Brain Store, Inc.
Jensen, E. (2005). “Teaching with the Brain in Mind”. Alexandria, VA. Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Levitin, Daniel. (2006). “This is Your Brain on Music”. New York, NY. Penguin Group
Neelly, L.P. (2001). “Developmentally Appropriate Music Practice: Children Learn What
They Live.” Young Children. May.
Schiller, P. (1999) “Start Smart”. Beltsville, MD. Gryphon House.
Banana Slugs have GREAT!!!! Science songs
(Like their Facebook Page and get occasional FREE song downloads)
Singing Science by Tickle Tune Typhoon