Kindermusik Curricula
Spring 2008

Village (newborn to 18 months)

Cock-A-doodle-MOO!— Hop on the hayride—it’s time to head for the farm! In the Cock-a-doodle-MOO! unit of Kindermusik Village, families will sing songs about the farm, including "Old MacDonald," "Hayride," and "Clever Cows." They’ll engage in rituals and playful activities for baby and caregiver, including infant massage, lap bounces, exercise, and quiet time. During the week, families will enjoy their At Home Materials, looking through a playful picturebook of animals and the sounds they make, as well as a CD of the songs heard in class and an instrument for music-making at home.

Dew Drops—Stop and smell the roses—and lily of the valley, and tulips, and pansies . . . in the DewDrops unit of Kindermusik Village, families will play and move together to songs about flowers, such as "Jasmine Flower," "How Does Your Garden Grow?," and "White Coral Bells." They’ll also hear traditional Irish music: they’ll dance a jig, move to the "Irish Trot," and exercise to "Did You Ever See a Lassie." In their At Home Materials, families will receive a CD of beautifully arranged songs from class, a board book of flowers, and an instrument for music-making at home.

Our Time (18 months to 3 years)

Away We Go!
Hop on the train, get in the car, board the plane, and Away We Go! This delightful, 15-lesson unit focuses on transportation, a favorite topic for toddlers who are on the go, go, go! Sing and play along with favorite songs, such as "I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad" and "Wheels on the Bus". Explore fast and slow, smooth and bumpy, and high and low. Read stories about ways to get around. Shiny Dinah tells the story of a train, and Giddy-Up! has a horse, speedboat, racecar, and more to help you get where you want to go. Move, play, and sing together in developmentally appropriate activities created just for 1 1/2 to 3-year-olds. Families will receive 2 CDs, a Home Activity Book, 2 storybooks (Shiny Dinah and Giddy-Up!), 2 harmonicas, and a train carrying box.

Imagine That! (3 to 5 years)

Toys I Make – Trips I Take
What’s more exciting to a 3 or 4-year-old than a new toy? How about an entire Toy Shop full of toys! And a full toy shop is exactly what your Kindermusik Imagine That! families will enjoy in an exceptional follow-up to the already highly regarded first unit of the curriculum, See What I Saw. Toys I Make, Trips I Take is focused on creating a stimulating musical environment that integrates music, pretend play, story telling movement, and more. Toys I Make, Trips I Take introduces the musical environment of a remarkable toy shop, filled with boats, trains, balls, jack-in-the-box and many other toys that bring a glimmer into a child’s eyes.

Young Child (5 to 7 years)

Semester 1
A pressure-free approach to learning, but concrete enough because his mind is ready for the more abstract thinking processes that music requires. Play remains the primary way a young child learns, so throughout the curriculum there is a consistent effort to balance active learning with the emotional reasoning aspects of a young child’s development in mind. At Home Materials include Children's Folder, Music At Home cards & stickers Games Bag, Family Songbook, Home CD, and Carry Bag. Instruments can include glockenspiel w/mallets, dulcimer, and recorder.

Family Time (all ages)

Make Way For Music
In Make Way for Music, families will sing, dance, and move their way through an exploration of several elements of music: beat and rhythm, concepts and contrasts (such as staccato and legato, high and low, the major scale, and arpeggios), the human voice, instrument families, and ensemble. They’ll engage in developmentally appropriate activities that the whole family can enjoy together, including fingerplays, songs, circle dances, story time, and family jam. In their At Home Materials, families will receive two fingerdrums, one Sing, Play, & Grow home activity guide, two children’s storybooks (Drum Circle and Animals on Parade), a hand puppet and finger puppet of Rex (the lion member of Family Time’s Jellybean Band), and an instrument-matching board game. Get the family band together, and Make Way for Music!

Sign & Sing (6 months to 3 years)
Session A: Everyday items around the house—a ball, bubbles, mom and
dad—become the objects of learning in the classroom and at home.
You’ll teach parents the sign language methods of the experts,
such as making the sign in front of a child, on a child’s body, and knowing when a child is most engaged and ready to learn. All assembled in this easy-to-
understand format so you can open your teacher’s kit, and be in the classroom teaching with confidence.

Session B: This session reviews the first three Keys to Signing Smart Success™ and provides an in-depth look at the final and fourth Key. New concepts such as in and out, up and down, big and little, tall and short will be explored with more songs and animal-themed activities.

Why Music?

Music is a science.
It is exact, it is specific and it demands exact acoustics. A conductor’s score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.




Music is mathematical.
It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.





Music is a foreign language.
Most of the terms are in Italian, German or French; and the notation is certainly not English - but a highly-developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.






Music is physical education.
It requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lip, cheeks and facial muscles in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragmatic, back and stomach muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.






Music is Art.
It allows the human being to take all these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and use them to create emotion. This one thing science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling emotion, call it what you will.

FACT SHEET
Research Encourages Focus on Music and the Arts to Enhance Early Childhood Development Music Research

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, states, "Studying music encourages self discipline and diligence traits that carry over into mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history and geography."

Research supports that music helps prepare the mind for specific disciplines of learning; skills learned through music carry over into study skills, communications skills, cognitive skills and abstract reasoning skills useful to all parts of life, according to a 1997 article in Neurological Research.

Young Children
Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect, traced neurological development during childhood and found prior to a major spurt of neural integration in the brain during the elementary school years, learning occurs through movement and quick emotional associations. For example, by age two, the brain has begun to fuse with the body via marching, dancing, and developing a sense of physical rhythm. The more that music children are exposed to before they enter school, the more deeply this stage of neural coding will assist them throughout their lives.

School-aged Children
Arts education makes a tremendous impact on the developmental growth of every child and has proven to help level the "learning field" across socio-economic boundaries, states the Involvement in the Arts and Success in Secondary School, James S. Catterall, The UCLA Imagination Project, Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, UCLA, Americans for the Arts Monograph, January 1998.

Arts education has a measurable impact on youth at risk in deterring delinquent behavior and truancy problems while also increasing overall academic performance among those youth engaged in after school and summer arts programs targeted toward delinquency prevention, according to the YouthARTS Development Project, 1996, U.S. Department of Justice, National Endowment for the Arts, and Americans for the Arts.

Community-based Arts
Findings from the Living the Arts through Language + Learning: A Report on Community-based Youth Organizations, Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University and Carnegie Foundation For the Advancement of Teaching, Americans for the Arts Monograph, November 1998 reports that:

Young people who participate in the arts for at least three hours a day, three days a week for at least one year are:

~4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.
~3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools.
~4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair.
~3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance.
~4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem.

Young artists, as compared with their peers, are likely to:
~Read for pleasure nearly twice as often.
~Perform community service more than four times as often.
~Participate in youth groups nearly four times as frequently.
~Attend music, art, and dance classes nearly three times as frequently.

5 tips for choosing the best toddler toys
What to buy to satisfy their need for activity and discovery

Top toys for your toddlers NBC News video

By Stephanie Oppenheim
May 8, 2007

Toddlers are often the hardest children to shop for because they still put things in their mouths, they're not always steady on their feet, and they're not ready for complicated toys.

Here's our list of top favorites for this on-the-go stage:

1. Active play
First you want toys for active play. "On the go!" That's the catch phrase that comes to mind when we think about toddlers. Wheel toys that match their new mobility are ideal. There are several things that we do not recommend for toddlers: They're not ready for pedals or motors. Choose toys that allow them to use their big muscles and develop their coordination. Our top picks: Radio Flyer Classic Walker Wagon (Radio Flyer $80); Retro Rocket (Radio Flyer $60) and Walker-to-Wagon (Fisher-Price $24.99).

2. Climbing toys
Climbing is another important form of locomotion. We spend so much of our time telling toddlers not to climb. It's important to give them space where they are encouraged to use their energy productively. Going up and down, under and over are all opportunities to use their big muscles. For this stage, skip the big, tall climbers. They're really not safe for toddlers. You're better off not having any, than to bring home something to grow into. That said, even low climber slides require adult supervision and cushioning underneath. New and small in scale is the Naturally Playful Lookout Treehouse (Step 2 $129.99). We also recommend Step 2's bigger Naturally Playful Clubhouse Climber ($599.99). It's pricey but a perfectly scaled climber/playhouse for this age group that will also be enjoyed by 3s and 4s.

3. Again-and-again toys
To know a toddler is know that they love doing things over and over again. While it may seem silly at times, these repetitive actions are a way of building their confidence and sense of themselves as active doers. It's important to select toys that build on that ability. There are several great choices in this category: Rollipop Toddler Starter and Advanced Sets (Edushape $19.95 and $24.95)/Roll Around Tower (International Playthings $28.99).

4. Exploration toys
Toddlers' play is all about exploration. Toddlers learn best through their senses so it's important to provide them with opportunities to make their own discoveries.

Sand/water exploration. Experience sand running through fingers, or through a sieve, or pushing a small boat through water. These are all fun ways to explore. What happens if I spill water through the water wheel? For exploration, you want toys that do not require a right or wrong way to make things happen. They are completely open-ended invitations for sensory learning. This kind of play gives meaning to concepts like full and empty, wet and dry. They're beginnings of basic science and great for language development. It's a good kind of messy play! We recommend the Sand & Sea Play Table (Little Tikes $79.99). It holds up to 50 pounds of sand. It comes with a water wheel, boats, an umbrella, and covers for both sides. Great for small spaces as well.

Art Exploration. At this stage it's not about making something, it's again about the exploration of the materials. How does the finger paint feel in my hand? What happens when you add red to yellow? These concrete experiences are the best way to introduce color concepts. This is literally hands-on learning. It's messy, so if that's an issue do it outside. Alex's Super Art Table ($154) is roomy enough for four young artists. Pair this with their new No Mess Fingerpaint Trays ($12.99) and finger paints that now come in new pump jars ($4.99 per bottle).

5. Pretend play
As language grows with older toddlers, so does the ability to make believe. Toddlers need more realistic props that look like things grownups are using. Familiar objects such as toy kitchens, shopping carts, toy phones, carriages, and huggables are all basic gear for this early stage of pretend. Simple props that allow the child to take charge are best. We'd recommend avoiding bossy toys that direct the play. The technology for these toys may seem appealing at first but they really rob kids of the opportunity to use their own imaginations. New this season, the Grand Walk-In Kitchen (Step 2 $259.99) works both as a kitchen and a playhouse complete with pretend microwave, of course.

Stephanie Oppenheim, a frequent TODAY contributor, is co-founder of the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio, an independent consumer organization that rates the best, and worst, in children's toys. For other top picks for toddlers, visit toyportfolio.com.