Recap: EDEL 325 Music Curriculum

One of the three classes I took this term was EDEL 325, or Pedagogy and Curriculum for Elementary Music. Going into this course, I was really excited for it as music is not classified as a core subject--rather an option. I do have a tiny music background singing in a city choir and used to play piano and the French Horn that I was looking forward in my background knowledge to be of use. 

Our professor was the best! Really, it didn't feel like a lecture class. Instead, there were times were we played instruments (like the recorder and the xylophone!), we sang to songs and participated in activities that broadened our musical understanding. Our professor also introduced cool concrete manipulatives, seen in the photo below. Learning music is best achieved not just sitting in a desk, but also with moving, participating, singing, dancing, and much more. 

Felt Staff Concrete Manipulatives

(Yes those are my salted and graham crackers, I got hungry at that time as music class was during lunch time!)

There was this assignment during our class where we had to choose a piece of children's literature, and incorporate it into teaching musical concepts, as in the Alberta Program of Studies. We had to write 5 mini lesson plans and create a display for it. With my library knowledge, I used the good ol' Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? as it's an all time classic of mine! For my display, I took selfies of each of the actions and glued it to one side, and on the other it's the animal itself. This would help students, such as with limited English vocabulary, to also be familiar with the animals in a kinesthetic learning environment. Along with the action cue cards, I made stick puppets of the animals too. 

Purple Cat, Brown Bear, Green Frog, Blue Horse, Yellow Duck

Can you guess which animals I'm doing the actions for?

This is such a great class for beginner music learners because each class helped me to build upon my fundamental skills from before. I highly recommend this course for anyone who is looking for an interesting option and who wants to further explore elementary music! Seriously, it was the one class I looked forward to every Monday and Wednesday.