About our project: Count the Beat Like Superheroes
There is a natural connection between rhythm/beat in music and number/counting in maths; and subitising* numbers is a key skill needed for ‘reading’ rhythmic notation. Learning the skills of numbers through music gives counting a purpose and a form. What better way than a creative learning adventure in music to help 23 pre-primary children grasp the basics of mathematics and also discover their musical side?
About our school:
This Creative Schools project ran in a low SES school, where some students have limited language skills. The children in the class did not have any music in their learning. The classroom environment already incorporated a lot of opportunities for play and imagination however the students were not used to collaborating and working together.
What happened?
This project used the foundational musical elements of beat and rhythm as the starting place for students to experience, explore and practise counting, subitising numbers and creating musical patterns.
Under the guidance of teacher Rachael Moir and musician Rachel Morris, the children started playing percussion music together: improvising, echoing, rehearsing, learning nursery rhymes and ‘playing the words’ on drums and in their bodies, linking rhythm and subdividing beat to syllables in a word. Students created short musical patterns in small groups and on their own. A whole of class activity created an animal rhyme with each student creating and performing their own short rhyming phrase, and we recorded the whole piece.
Each week we started with a drumming circle where students could play together and collaborate. We did simple activities like passing the beat around the circle, following the leader and echoing. We extended these activities to make them increasingly complex while also regularly repeating them, so that our students grew in confidence and the key skills of counting the beat and playing rhythms were consolidated.
When they are free to move around, the learning is richer, and they will persist longer with their ideas. Because it’s interesting and engaging and they own the idea. Creative Practitioner
How did we use the Five Creative Habits of Learning?
The emphasis was on creating rich, collaborative learning experiences and on the process and the joy in journey rather than outcome. The best learning occurs in the presence of joy, when students don’t ‘know’ that they are learning.
By creating percussion music together, and being together in a drumming circle, students practised listening, rehearsing and working together: persistence, collaboration and discipline. Improvising involves imagination. Creating/composing in music involves inquisitiveness and inquiry.
It's great to see the process, especially the way the children lead and shared their ideas. They were building on each other’s ideas. At the start of the year, they were working individually. So, the collaborative nature has given them new skills.
- Creative Practitioner
On the wall in the classroom there was a superhero figure for each student, and colour-coded stickers for the Five Habits. Via reflective conversations students identified key Habits they were practising and putting relevant stickers on their superhero.
What did we discover?
The students LOVED hearing the recording of their collaborative animal rhyme, and they were so delighted when they heard themselves. Making choices about the sounds they used and hearing themselves as recording artists really boosted their confidence. It is so important that the piece included their own work: their words, their ideas, and their voice. They made all the choices!
We do music and singing. I like it because we do fun stuff and we learn new stuff. We do patterns and music.
- Student
All of us made up the song.
- Student
In the drumming circle, individual students had the opportunity to lead the group—requiring bravery—in making choices about how they would perform. The maths and numbers came alive because the children experienced, explored and practised counting with their bodies, voices and on instruments. Instead of learning being sedentary and individual it was collective and embodied. There were opportunities to use counting and number skills to create patterns, play patterns, make music and improvise.
Normally the kids who are lower achievers will shut down if they don’t know something but in the Creative Schools sessions they are having a go. It’s been eye opening.
- Teacher
The impact on the Teacher/Creative team: This program has made me realise that I’ve been stuck in my ways. This is something I would never usually do. But today the kids were subitising and counting. It’s a different way to do things. I am not musical, so it’s been refreshing to have Rachel come in and it’s been nice to work with someone with a different perspective.
- Teacher
I’m noticing the teacher realising the students are learning, and you have to embrace the unknown to start with. They are learning in a different way. Including movement, music and maths and following their lead. Rachael says she has struggled to get them to do things collaboratively in the past, yet they can do it in the drumming circle. The children are showing such bravery, when others are looking at them and they are performing and putting their ideas out there. It’s a big brave task for a pre-primary kid.
- Creative Practitioner
The impact on the school: Finding that concrete connection is a development milestone, so the more exposure the students get to it, the better the connection. This is so important because it’s the foundation to all their maths learning. Movement: they need to move to learn, and we find this is especially important for kids from low socio-economic backgrounds. Creative Schools encourages student engagement, gives them choice and includes them in decision-making. It offers children opportunities to share ideas and see their ideas included in the learning. Such JOY in the session.
- Principal
Main Curriculum Focus: Maths/Numbers
Maths: connecting number names and quantities; subitising numbers from one to ten;
pattern.
English: identify and produce rhyme; and use music and the rhythm of speech to improve fluency and confidence in speaking.
Cross-curricular links:• English • Performing arts: music, drama• Visual art
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