Children love to be read to.  But is that all there is to a story?  Emergent literature has so much more to offer young children in the form of music, movement, and the arts.  Recent brain research has confirmed the value of music, movement and language acquisition in learning.  This workshop will provide foundational information for the application of best practices as attendees explore, collaborate, and create exciting lessons for their children.  The workshop will be interactive, fast-paced, and fun!  Stories take on new levels of importance when teachers know how to integrate more activities with the storyline and build curriculum around literature.

This workshop will present teaching methods and strategies that integrate children’s literature with music, movement, and art to enrich the early childhood curriculum.  Teachers are expected to bring three (3) of their favourite storybooks for young children.

Objectives
By the end of the workshop, participants will:

• Be able to evaluate early literature books that can integrate content areas of movement, music and art possibilities
• Have a sense of the scope and sequence of each content area separately
• Develop an understanding of the importance of early literature activities
• Develop a basic understanding of how young children acquire knowledge and skills in the content areas of music, movement, and the arts
• Develop a basic understanding of how emergent literacy skills develop
• Explore and evaluate:
  • Children’s literature
  • Rhythmic equipment
  • Movement equipment
  • Performing and visual arts materials
• Design a curriculum plan to integrate children’s literature with the content areas of music, movement, and the arts
• Learn how music and movement aids in the ability to focus in, and learn concentration skills.
• Show how the development of spatial awareness (laterality, directionality, levels, pathways, body orientation, etc.) aids in reading readiness.
• Evaluate personal level of understand of the importance of literacy, music, movement, and the arts in the early childhood curriculum
• Evaluate personal level of comfort and confidence in teaching the above mentioned content areas

Outline
Day 1:

• Introduce a variety of early literature books brought in by the workshop participants.
  • Each workshop attendee is asked to bring three favorite read aloud books for children between the ages of three and seven.  From this, we will do the following:
    • identify an author’s writing style
    • observe the illustrator’s conveyance of storyline
    • reading rhythmic patterning and steady beat identification
    • alliteration and onomatopoeia
    • artistic effect
    • emotions and feeling conveyance
    • movement and action words
    • music possibilities
• Music and language acquisition and it’s relationship to reading
  • When does language acquisition begin
  • How does the development of the ear affect language acquisition
  • What is the vestibular system
  • What does “steady beat” and rhythmic patterning have to do with language development and reading
• Movement and language acquisition and its relationship to reading with fundamental movement patterns:
  • Breath
  • Tactile/Sensory
  • Core-Distal
  • Head-Tail
  • Upper-Lower
  • Body Sides
  • Cross-Lateral
  • Vestibular
• Fundamental Music Elements
  • Rhythm
  • Melody
  • Form
  • Expression
  • Timbre
  • Texture
  • Music samplings
• Fundamental Movement Activities
  • Locomotor skills
  • Ball handling skills
  • Manipulative (parachute, lummi sticks, scarves, streamers, jump ropes, etc.)
• Pair and Share
  • Dances
  • Poems
  • Rhythms
  • Songs
  • Lesson plan ideas

Day 2:

• Playing with Working Terms
  • Learning how to decide what activities to include
  • Looking at some key elements to consider in a reading, moving music lesson plan: what does the book lend itself toward
  • Setting up your movement environment
  • Visual perception
  • Auditory processing
  • Laterality (left/right discrimination)
  • Midline and midline crossing
  • Form perception
  • Fine perceptual motor skills
  • Kinesthetic awareness
  • Manipulative skills
  • Non-manipulative skills
  • Space awareness
  • Locomotor skills
  • Listening skills (echoing, etc.)
  • Creative movement
• A quick look at the emotional connection of learning with music and movement
  • Musical intelligence
  • Positive and negative frequencies and the cognitive and physiological effects
  • Music’s affect on the brain
  • How music and movement enhance a learning state
  • Creating a sense of community
• What are the effects of music and movement on Spatial-Temporal Reasoning?
  • Perceiving
  • Remembering
  • Creating
  • Organizing
  • Thinking on a higher plane
  • Math concepts
  • Science concepts
  • Literacy and understanding
• Pair and Share more Music and Movement ideas for classroom activities
  • Hand manipulative activities
  • Locomotor activities
  • Sensorimotor and creative dance activities
  • Folk dance for math activities
  • More lesson plan ideas

Trainer’s Profile
Nicki G. is an Education Consultant with 36 years of teaching experience.  She is a published author with two new books and music CD’s to come out in 2006.

Nicki has an M.S. Ed. in curriculum design and development from National University in San Diego California, a B.S. from Washington State University as a physical education specialist, and other post-graduate work from Colorado State University and University of California, Berkeley, in early childhood sensory motor dysfunction.  Her extensive work in early childhood education and program development has been focused on motor skill development, new research in brain based psychomotor learning and sensory motor development.

Nicki has been conducting workshops on the national level for National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) along with state associations such as Washington and California AEYC annually for the past several years. Additionally, Nicki was the 2002 General Conference Director for the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI), and also has presented workshops for that organization.

Methodology
The workshop includes; video clips, power point presentation, storybook analysis, large and small group discussion, pair and share, review of current research on the effects of music, movement and the arts on learning, and active participation  in games and activities.  Come prepared to participate, get up and move, and construct your own web of knowledge.  Take back tools and lesson plans that you can readily implement in your classroom.

Target Audience
Early childhood educators, administrators, early childhood special education teachers, physical education teachers, early reading specialists, paraprofessionals and parents

Duration: 2 days, 12 hours
Closing Date: 1 Jul 07