Música y movimiento para la primera infancia inspirados en Waldorf

The class meets via live video chat. I use fingerplays, songs, instruments, verses, visual images, books, and structured choice-making and sharing in a way that is engaging to children of this age group, while aesthetically much more appealing than "sing-songy" kids' music, and which keeps children of differing energy levels and learning styles engaged without relying on "winding them up." 

My work with early-childhood and middle-childhood learners is inspired by Waldorf/Steiner Education in the sense that it centers imagination, rich aesthetic experiences, relationships, simplicity, nature, practical tasks, and predictable rhythms. I have always felt that many aspects of Waldorf Education mesh nicely with many of the philosophies of music therapy and expressive arts therapy, which is my formal background. 

I do adapt the Waldorf method quite a bit in that I reject the aspects of Waldorf education that are based on concepts we now know to be pseudoscience, I do not endorse automatic avoidance of all modernity and popular culture without assessing whether it does in fact have value, and I shift the general aesthetic a bit to be one that is more multicultural as my worldview is one that is actively inclusive and affirming of all people. My classes differ from typical early childhood Waldorf teaching in that I use folk music from African, Asian, Latin American, Native American, Caribbean, and African-American traditions in addition to European traditions and I often include stories (generally with musical/dramatic elements) told from a picture book or series of illustrations 

The course has a predictable structure and rhythm from week to week, with subtle and intentional changes, and of course responsiveness to what children bring in the moment.

A typical session looks like:
• Welcome/hello song/names/optional sharing of what country or state we are in
• Movement/active songs
• Sharing: Take one minute to find and tell us about something round, something fuzzy, something from a plant, etc. (will post in classroom in advance if asking for anything that might need adult help)
• Fingerplays
• Structured improvisation with instruments
• Let's go on a walk: we see what we can discover in an array of scenery and small toys set up beforehand
• Story with music and images (either improvised or students' choice)
• Closing song