Music

“Children learn first to perform simple songs through listening to and imitating others. Young children also enjoy improvising their own chants and tunes on homemade instruments, musical toys or ‘found’ sound sources” (Council, 1999).

In music, we watched a TEDx  video of a young man talking about and demonstrating beatboxing.

(TEDx Talks, 2013).

This is an incredible video that shows that music does not need to come from a musical instrument or through a song. There are endless amounts of sounds that can come from the voice. I feel that this could definitely be integrated into classroom arts programmes.

 

Art

“Arts education refers to education in the disciplines of music, dance, theatre, and visual arts. Study in the arts is integral to our society” (Bryant, 2016).

Today’s art workshop consisted of using visual art cards. These cards had an image on one side and related explanations on the other. Below is the card that I got given:

Before reading the explanation on the back we were to observe the image and consider the following points:

The purpose of this activity was to consider all aspects of the image, how it makes you feel and what it says to you. I feel that this is a crucial skill that children need to develop, particularly in today’s generation where everything is instantly available to us.

The information on the back of the cards gave a small variety of possible explanations and feelings relating to the image. I like art, and particularly this exercise, as there is no correct answer and this allows children to express how the images make them feel as an individual.

TEDx Talks (2013) Beatbox brilliance | Tom thum | TEDxSydney. Available at: https://youtu.be/GNZBSZD16cY (Accessed: 2 January 2017).

Council, N. (1999) Music: Arts education. Dublin: Stationery Office.

Bryant, B. (2016) The importance of fine arts education. Available at: http://www.katyisd.org/dept/finearts/Pages/The-Importance-of-Fine-Arts-Education-.aspx (Accessed: 2 January 2017).