Today we began by considering the importance of music for children. We considered how music can be used in classroom lessons, across the school and within the community. Music can connect children with their peers and with people in their community. This sense of community togetherness is something which the expressive arts promote and through the development of creative skills children will develop their abilities to care about and take control of the world around them (Education Scotland, 2013). 
The main factors we considered were musical experience, participation, discovery of music, musical repertoire and awareness. I learned that beats are the foundation of music, then the long and short sounds of the rhythm, then the notes which make the melody, then the timbre, then the dynamics and finally the pitch. Julie spoke of the importance of learning how to experiment with music across various different platforms such as instruments, technology, voice, and listening. We also considered the importance of experiencing music in different environments, learning how to compose a piece of music and considering the meaning and thoughts behind the music. As well as being a way of expressing emotions and thoughts, music is a way for many learners to find themselves and it can allow for children to channel their emotions into something other than aggressive speech or actions. In addition, Anna Craft (2007) argues that encouraging creativity in schools can challenge teachers as our approaches are often typically Western and this may make parents and/or children with different cultural backgrounds feel uncomfortable. However, music provides us with ideal opportunities to explore and celebrate different cultures – helping to ensure that more Eastern views are not forgotten about during expressive arts activities.
We then moved on to considering how music can be used to develop skills across the curriculum in more depth. We split Hallam’s paper in the International Journal of Music Education (2010). Other groups considered the impact of music on numeracy, perceptual and language skills, intellectual development, general attainment, creativity, social and personal development, and physical development and health and wellbeing. 
My group looked at literacy and we found that much research has been undertaken to prove that musical training improves phonological awareness and so early reading skills. This means that if music is taught to children in schools from a very young age, their phonological abilities will be of a higher standard. The paper also shows that learning the piano in particular is linked to better vocabulary and stronger verbal sequencing, and instrumental training makes people better at remembering verbal information. This makes music a fantastic way to develop the skills of those with reading disabilities such as Dyslexia as it helps to improve language, timing and verbal memory. In addition, by using the beats of music by clapping, stamping or using instruments, it can help learners to sound out words and to identify phonological and graphic patterns in words. The abilities to sound out words, remember verbal language and to picture sequencing are all things which people with Dyslexia struggle with, so if music can help them to develop these then that is reason enough to dedicate time to music lessons.
Although to develop these skills music does not have to be used in a literacy context, it can be used across the curriculum to directly achieve Experiences and Outcomes for various subjects other than music. We came up with a lesson plan to teach music in the context of literacy. We decided to do this based on reading groups due to our new found knowledge of the impact music can have on reading skills in particular. The task we created included children working in their reading groups to create a piece of music which told the story of their reading book, including the different feelings and aspects of the beginning, middle and end of the book. Attached is the first section of our lesson plan:
This would be a good lesson to support the government aims of using more of art and ICT to encourage creativity across the curriculum (Education Scotland, 2013).
After the music workshop we moved on to dance. We began by considering our own feelings towards teaching dance and most of the group said they felt nervous about it. Although I am nervous I am also feeling optimistic as I think that it is something which most children will 
enjoy, as I remember enjoying the few experiences of expressive dance which I got as a pupil at school. We then moved on to playing games such as follow the leader; when the person at the front of the line did a dance move which they thought of when they heard different pieces of music being played, the rest of us copied. We also played Tig and movement team games which related to the topic of the day – which in our case was Scotland. This is a good way to contextualise the dance activity and to make it relevant to the learning of the children in the classroom. It also allows learners to consider the topic in a different way and in more depth, which, for many children, can help to promote understanding in a memorable way. We were exploring aspects of Scottish culture and of Scotland as a geographical location. Different places and points in time could be explored in the same way through dance. Once we were warmed up, we stretched. Before stretching we considered the places and names of our different muscles, bones and organs by drawing around one person in our team’s body. This again, helped to contextualise learning and allowed us to see why we were doing these stretches and what was happening to our bodies when we did. 
Finally, in our groups we moved round different stations of movement, namely: reach, twist, balance, turn, kick, jump, hop, gesture, slide, and roll. At each station we had to come up with a movement of this description. At the end we combined all of the movements to create a dance which we performed to the rest of the class.
By giving children a theme and by providing examples of the different movements of dance, we can help even those with the least confidence in dance to create a routine which reflects their thoughts and feelings. Also, if we allow children to decide for themselves what they are going to dance about then we, as teachers, can learn a lot about what is currently impacting them in their lives (Cone, 2011). Finding the balance between guidance and freedom is important as Cone (2011) discusses that too much guidance can 
hinder creativity and can prevent learners from identifying and dealing with problems in their own ways and it may also steal opportunities for the building of confidence and resilience. However, she also discusses that too much freedom can lead to challenges such as children taking inspiration from video games and wanting to incorporate fighting into their dances. She suggests that we should take these challenges as opportunities to discuss that violence is wrong but it sadly happens, and help children to consider ways of overcoming conflict in a peaceful way. Dance can therefore be used to teach and explore valuable life lessons, as well as to develop understanding and knowledge of other topics across the curriculum such as geography, history, and biology.
Overall, music and dance can be used successfully to explore different subjects across the curriculum. Today I have developed an understanding of this and have considered various ways in which I could use them to do so in the classroom. I hope to further my knowledge and understanding of this throughout the next few inputs on music and dance and through further reading. I also hope to continue to build on my confidence in teaching these subjects, as today I have made a good start in doing so.
References
Craft, A (2007) Creativity and possibility in the Early Years [Online] Available: https://www.tactic.org.uk/pdfs/reflection-craft.pdf [Accessed: 1 October 2017].
Cone, T (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances, Journal of Dance Education [Online] Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. Available: Taylor & Francis. [Accessed: 14 October 2017].
Education Scotland (2013) Creativity Across Learning 3-18. [Online] Available: https://www.education.gov.scot/improvement/Documents/cre39-impact-report.pdf [Accessed: 17 October 2017].
Hallam, S (2010) The power of music: It’s impact on the intellectual, social and personal development of children and young people, International Journal of Music Education [Online] Vol.35(4), pp.269-289. Available: http://ijm.sage.pub.com/content/28/3/269 [Accessed: 17 October 2017].
