Activity Plan

Preliminary Information:

Name of Student Educator: Britannia MacDonald

Curriculum Area: Music Developmental Domain: Social Emotional

Descriptive Title of Activity: Music Box

Indoor: Indoor Activity Outdoor:_________

Age of Children: 12-18 Months

Date of Implementation: February 16th, 2017

Resources Used to Prepare Plan (in APA format):

Best Start Expert Panel on Early Learning. (2007). Early Learning for Every Child Today: A framework
for Ontario early childhood settings. Ontario. Ministry of Child and Youth Services.
Babysugar. (5 July 2010). 10 Finger Play Songs to Entertain Tots. Popsugar. Retrieved from
http://www.popsugar.com/moms/Finger-Play-Songs-Babies-8989911#photo-8989921

Kate. (3 December 2013). DIY Christmas Sleigh Bells. Laughing Kids Learn. Retrieved from
http://laughingkidslearn.com/diy-christmas-sleigh-bells

Children’s Resource or Storybook (in APA format, to be used as part of activity-

before/after/extend/enhance learning):

Perkins, A. (1998). Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. Toronto: Random House of Canada Limited.

Part I – Planning

Rational for the activity (sentence form):

The children in my daycare have shown enjoyment when stomping, twisting, and clapping along to
familiar songs that play on their playtime CD. The gross motor movements they are expressing are
almost exclusively made up of movements they are imitating from their teachers.They have also
shown a preference for toys that make noise, as opposed to toys which are visually appealing. Due to
these observations, I have concluded that the children are interested primarily in imitation (ELECT
24), as well as auditory exploration (ELECT 33). In order to encompass all of the developmental
domains I have decided to implement a music activity with a focus on one-to-one simple turn taking
(ELECT 24), which I feel would be most beneficial to maintain their greatest level of focus as well.
This activity will also have the children using their large muscles as instruments by using wearable
bell bracelets and anklets. This will allow them to use their bodies to create music without having their
personal and physical expression of the music being obstructed, and combines their interests of
imitation and auditory exploration in a natural fashion.
Overall and Specific Skills

Cognitive

ELECT 4.7 Imitation (Pg. 29)

Specific Skill: Children will be shown simple movements to familiar and new songs, and will be given
a pause to practice imitating the new actions.

Physical

ELECT 5.3 Auditory Exploration (Pg. 33)

Specific Skill: Making gross motor movements, the children will be able to create music with wearable
jingle bell bracelets and anklets.

Social

ELECT 1.3 Simple Turn Taking (Pg. 24)

Specific Skill: The children will utilize their attention skills to watch the teacher make movements
along to a tune, and then they will have an opportunity to do the skill together, or by themselves.

Learning Materials needed:

-12 Bell Bracelets and Anklets

-5 Laminated Cue Cards with songs
-1 Story Book: Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Description of Set-Up:

I will sit on the blue mat which is placed in front of the children’s toy shelf with their instruments on it. I
will leave the cookie tin that holds the children’s bracelets on top of the shelf until the teacher turns on
the music. When that is done, I will take one bell bracelet out and put it on, encouraging the children’s
interest. When they begin to show interest, I will place the container beside me on the blue mat, and
allow the children to choose whichever coloured bell bracelet they would like.

Guidelines to Foster Self-Regulation:

- “Use your walking feet while wearing the bells.”

- “Keep your feet on the mat while wearing the bells.”
- “One person plays with the bells and book at one time.”

Health or Safety Considerations:

-Make sure the space is clear and free of obstacles

-Ensure that the bells are properly attached to the child. No loose ends, but not too tight.
-Make sure the children's shoes and pants are not obstructing their movement to avoid tripping
accidents.

Part II – Implementation

Invitation (aimed at getting children’s attention and interest):

Once the activity is set up, I will take out one of the bell bracelets and wear it. Then I will casually play
with the children until somebody notices the bracelet and shows interest. If nobody takes interest, I
might then take out another bracelet, form it into a rattle, and ask one of the children, “Would you like
to make some music with me?”

Teaching Steps (detailed and clear):

1.Sit the children down on my lap and form the bracelet to its appropriate size.
2.Allow the children to experiment with the bracelets to see what effects they can make. Take this
time to show them what happens when you clap with the bells, and how they can make co-ordinated
beats.
3.State the rules for self-regulation.
4.With the children sitting in my lap, use a familiar song to begin the activity. For the sake of this
activity we will sing Row Row Row your boat. Have with the child laying back on your legs, rock
their bodies back and forth and allow their heads to fall back slightly. Holding their hands, let bells
jingle as they move up with you, while singing “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream”. Then for the next verse, holding their hands and
roll them in a circle from the child's chest to yours. Sing “Row, row, row your boat gently down the
stream. If you see ___, don't forget to scream!” and raise your hands and shake them in the air while
softly yelling, ringing the bells at the same time. If they want to sing the song one more time, sing the
normal beginning “Row, row, row your boat gently down the shore” with the same rolling motion. Then
the final verse will be “If you see a dinosaur, don't forget to roar!” and then let go of their hands and
raise them, shaking them while having your fingers splayed like claws at either side of your face.
5.Next, a new song will be introduced. In this case it will be the Itsy Bitsy Spider. Children can still sit
on your lap while you have one hand facing down and one facing up with the thumb touching, and
you alternate hands pointing up and down, singing “The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout”.
Then sweep your hands down with your fingers wiggling while singing “Down came the rain and
washed the spider out”. Then make a circle with all the fingers on both hands singing “Up came the
sun and dried up all the rain”. Then go back to the hand over hand motion to conclude the song with,
“and the Itsy Bitsy spider went up the spout again.” Repeat the song once in order to help reinforce
the actions, and then possible add in alternate insects that fit with the song. Ask them which insects
they would like to incorporate first. Some insects you might conclude if you don't get an answer might
include the pretty little butterfly, or the little buzzing bumblebee. For the butterfly have hands placed
side by side with thumbs as the butterfly's body, and your other fingers as wings. With the butterfly,
put fists together and move them from shoulder to shoulder.
6.Go back to a familiar song in order to keep their attention. Wheels on the bus will be an adequate
song for this section. This song allows for more child independence. In the beginning of “the wheels
on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheel on the bus go round
and round, all through the town” there will be hand over hand, moving hands in a circle from the
child's chest to the teacher's. With different verses afterwards, the child can do the actions by
themselves. Some examples that may be used include “The people on the bus go chat, chat chat”
with hands raised and fingers opening and closing like the teacher is wearing a puppet that is
speaking, and “The people on the bus go up and down” while having the child raise and drop their
arms along with you, as well as “The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish” while having your
forearms rocking from side to side.
7.With the child still seated in my lap, begin playing pat-a-cake. Have them hold their hands down,
palms open, and tap your hands to theirs so you are clapping together while singing “Pat-a-cake, pat-
a-cake, baker's man. Bake me a cake as fast as you can!”. Then pull your hands back and roll your
arms over each other and draw out the lyric “roll it”. Then pat your hands on their knees and draw out
“and pat it” and then in the air write the letter 'b' while singing “and mark it with a 'B'” and then tickle
their stomach and chest and while finishing “and put it in the oven for baby and me!”. After this initial
verse, insert their name for the final lyrics, such as “And mark it with a 'T', and put it in the oven for
Toby and me!”. For a final verse, ask children who around them should get a cake as well, and then
incorporate their name, as well as the first letter of their name into the song.
8.For the final song, I will use The Ants Go Marching so that the children are standing and moving
about, and the transition will be much smoother. I will take off their bells at this point, but occupy them
with big movements. Kneel on your knees with your arms moving at your sides in a steady motion,
fists coming up to your shoulders, while singing “The ants go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah”.
Then pause and put one finger up on each hand while singing “The ants go marching one (show
finger) by one (show finger)” followed by putting your thumb on your lower lip and singing “The little
one stopped to suck his thumb” and then go back to the marching movement with your hands while
singing “And they all go marching down to the ground, to get out of the rain” and drum hands on the
ground to the rhythm with “Boom, boom, boom, boom! Boom, boom, boom, boom!”. Increase the
number of fingers you show them based on the verse you are at. (Example, if you reach verse five
you show both hands holding up five fingers). Repeat this with verses until the child begins to lose
attention and their interests move elsewhere. For the second verse with “The little one stops to tie his
shoe”, put your foot out in front of you and tap it on the floor twice. For the third verse, “The little one
stops to climb a tree” raise one hand above your head with fingers curled and one hand at your mid-
chest with fingers curled, alternating hands like you're climbing a ladder. For the fourth verse, “The
little one stops to shut the door”, have one hand held between you and the child, palm perpendicular
to the child, and then clap your hands together. If at any point during the verses the child starts to
move on, move on to the closure of the activity.

Three Wonderment Questions

1. How else can we move to wheels rolling?

2. How do the bells sound?
3. What did that feel like? (When tickling them, or tapping their hands during pat-a-cake, etc).

Closure:

“Thank you for making music with me! You used your body to make all kinds of beautiful music.”

Transition:

“Can you march around and find anything else that you can make music with?”

Ways in which the following are incorporated into this activity:

i) Creativity:
(Explain in sentence form how activity promotes creativity)

Allows the children to explore with their own bodies in various ways to see which sounds they can
produce. They will be free to manipulate their bodies to hear the bells in any way they would like, and
are never constricted to only follow the teacher's actions. They will be asked open ended questions
about what they are experiencing and how they would like to expand their experiences with the
materials, and all answers will be accepted without criticism or judgment (Examples include “How do
you think the wheels move” and “How do you think the baker will pat the cake”). This activity also
focuses on the process and the individual creativity of the child, and they are not made to follow the
movements that the teacher is doing, but are free to do their own motions while the teacher follows
the ones that they have had prepared.

ii) Inclusiveness:
(Explain in sentence form how activity fosters inclusiveness)

The activity presented was created so that infants that are less mobile, as well as infants that have
poor as well as strong gross motor development can participate equally. The activity can be
experienced and manipulated in many ways, and each child is encouraged to have fun and learn from
the experience in their own ways, whether they focus intensely on the singing, the movements, or
even just their effects over the bells. The activity I have created is meant to be a one on one exercise
so that the child has my undivided attention, aid, and their creativity and movements are appreciated
at all times during the activity.

Part III Reflective Practice

The Learning Story:

Music Box

The children were playing while a music CD played in the background and I knew two
songs on my song list were coming up on the CD. I took the tin with my bracelets and
put one on. Immediately, two infants approached and wanted their own. The one infant
shook his whole arm to make the bells jingle. The girl waved hello to the teachers to
make it ring. I then introduced the song “The Ants Go Marching” to the children, as it
had the most gross motor movements to make the most noise with their new
instruments, and they stomped around and waved their hands in the air to make as
much noise as they possibly could while imitating my movements. This drew the rest of
the infants into the activity, until all of the children had a bell bracelet. Some wore it on
their arms, and some used it as a tambourine while holding the band on the bracelet in
their grasp. (ELECT 5.3 Page 33: Auditory Exploration). After including the new song so
they could test their bell bracelets, I played “Row, Row, Row your boat” with the infant in
my lap, starting the one on one session. I used all three verses, and she mimicked
“Row, Row, Row” by the third verse. Then I showed her “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”. Most of
the children watched the movements and listened to the bell, while some of the children
mimicked the gestures for the rain and sun (ELECT 4.7 Page 29: Imitation). All of the
children participated when I began singing “The Wheels on the Bus”, and they
especially liked the up and down verse for familiarity to sing along, and the sounds of
the bells with the large movements during this verse as well. The children liked the
personal nature of “Pat-a-cake”, especially verses where they heard their own name or
the name of a familiar person within their classroom, or even verses that mentioned
their parents and other family members. The children also loved the book I brought,
“Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb”. They enjoyed the repetitive rhymes and helped me read
the book by drumming on the page after I did, while reading “Drum, drum, drum!” or
“Dum ditty, dum ditty, dum, dum, dum!” (ELECT 1.3 Page 24: Simple Turn Taking).
Analysis of Learning:
(What did the child(ren) do and understand during this experience?)

They swung their arms, clapped their hands, patted their legs, and held their arms up high and down
low to make noises with the bells, and properly imitated the sounds I was making with my own
bracelet. The children waited for me to drum and took cue to drum on the book as well. The children
also sang along to familiar and repetitive lyrics while moving their arms to imitate actions and ring the
bells, effectively coordinating their sensory and motor experiences while also understanding that their
movements make the bells create noise.

Extension of Learning:
(What opportunities will the student educator provide to extend on this experience?)

I gave all of the children their own bell bracelet in the beginning so that they could participate in the
activity from wherever they were comfortable, and at whatever time their attention was captured by
the activity. I also asked the children how else they could use the bracelets and they showed me that
they could have it on their shoe, in their hand, hanging on their nose, and lots of other interesting and
amusing alternatives.

C –Self-Reflection of Student Educator’s Learning / Performance

**Must be completed before the cooperating teacher’s evaluation

Strengths:
(how did the student impact the success of the activity minimum of 2)

1. I took the students cues as to when they wanted to participate and acted accordingly so
that I was not being directive and limiting their time to use their creativity.
2. I interacted with each child individually to make sure they all got an interactive experience
from the activity.

Recommendations:
(what can the student do differently to change, improve, enhance the experience
– minimum of 2)

1. Instead of making materials children can have individually, I should make more
materials that can be used by a number of children at the same time in order to
encourage a greater group learning experience.
2. I should try to be more confident and expressive when talking to the children (and
singing). The children responded well to my book when I read it and made music and
sang, but I should be more expressive in my actions when interacting with the infants in
order to get them more involved with my activities.
________________________________________________________________________

D - Cooperating Teacher’s Evaluation: (Please include signature and date)

**To be completed after the student has self-reflected.

(On the following page)