The ideal kindergarten experience leaves lots of room for making a mess. Markers, glue sticks, glitter, popsicle sticks–there’s lots of clean up involved, but these are important tools for spurring creativity and empowering brain development.
In many public school systems, pre-secondary music has been cut to the bone or eliminated; in these cases, and even when elementary music is still robust, we have to think of middle school and high school choir as really parallel to kindergarten and first grade in some ways.
I certainly think of high school students’ reading of music as similar to my five-year-old’s reading of words.
With that parallel in mind, what are you doing to encourage the creative mess that will spur your students’ learning?
As you start planning the rush to the next concert, and worrying about polishing and memorizing the music, make sure you take some time to let your students make a little mess in the service of learning.
Find time to make your class a creative space. You don’t need construction paper or pipe cleaners, but what about the musical equivalents?