Last Wednesday, Stu was in introduced to the West Wing circle as a “surprise”.
He was ‘unveiled’ as a “sound and music expert”, who comes to help us investigate these specialties. This Wednesday morning, the Rose group worked with Stu and Paola. They explored sounds made by the body. This came up organically while “warming up” their hands to get ready to clap for the introduction song.
The children started offering their thoughts on this sound. While rubbing their hands together;
Charlie: “It sounds like a butterfly.”
Imonie: “Ya, a flying butterfly!”
After making hand sounds, it was only natural that they wanted to make feet sounds. Michael began kicking his feet loud on the ground, with and without shoes.
Hannah: “That’s a loud sound.”
David: “It sounds like a bee kicking its legs.”
Kyle then demonstrated for the group what a soft feet kicking sound sounded like. They explored soft and quiet sounds with hands, feet and shoes.
They even layed down on the floor with their ears close to the ground, to hear what shoes sounded like from that perspective.
This sound exploration is a way for the children to notice and use their bodies as a tool for making sound, and also to practice in verbally descriptions of what they are hearing. At reflection meeting time, Sam asked the group what they enjoyed about their experience.
Imonie: “I remember making my crock sound, and hand sound.”
Michael: “I liked jumping!”
Hannah: “I liked jumping too. Ya, that was my favorite part.”