POLOKWANE – When it comes to singing, children between the ages of two and four need to have some introduction to music as it is essential for development.
Review spoke to a music teacher and a class teachers at Werk en Wen, on why singing is important and essential in education.
Music is an integral part of a quality early childhood curriculum. It plays a role in setting the tone of the classroom, developing skills and concepts, helping children make transitions, and building a sense of community.
Of course, if you ask the children, they will tell you singing is a fun part of their daily activities.
In recent years, with a strong focus on early literacy, schools have begun to examine and redefine the valuable role singing songs and reciting chants and rhymes play in laying the foundation for reading readiness. For example, that these activities can help build vocabulary and develop sound discrimination. Both skills are crucial to the development of literacy.
Watch Werk en Wen learners during their music class:
“The size of a child’s vocabulary and his or her ability to discriminate sounds are strong predictors of how easily a child will learn to read when exposed to formal instruction,” one teacher at Werk en Wen told Review.
“Oral language and phonological sensitivity (sound discrimination) are not the only skills that are developed when children are exposed to songs, chants, and rhyme. They can also develop listening and thinking skills. Oral language (vocabulary), phonological sensitivity and comprehension (thinking skills) are the building blocks of literacy. With conscious effort, songs, chants and rhymes become a perfect springboard for developing all three of these critical skill areas,” Music teacher Sandra Becker told Review.
She said just singing a song and reciting the chants and rhymes with children provides a great foundation for literacy development, but if teachers really want to capitalise on the full range of benefits in using songs, chants and rhymes as a springboard to literacy, they need to purposefully use them as learning opportunities.
