Music and Toddlers

1
Music and Toddlers

• Student Created

2
Music and Toddlers Go Together

• Toddlers love nursery rhymes.
• Singing to their animals.
• To have their parents sing them a lullaby.

3
Music Helps

• Music helps create what is called a rich sensory
  environment
• Taste
• Smells
• Textures
• Colors
• Sounds
• Being able to experience all of the above helps
  create more pathways between cells in the brain.

4
How Toddlers Respond

• Toddlers respond to music best when they can
  experience it. This includes
• Rocking
• Marching
• Rolling
• Tapping
• Clapping

5
Keeping Time

• Toddlers are at an age now when they can keep
  time sporadically. They have trouble keeping
  rhythm but they are learning to keep a steady
  beat.
• Mostly though, they love to march around with a
  pot and a wooden spoon creating noise.

6
Music Can Also Teach Facts and Skills

• ABCs teaches the alphabet.
• There Was and Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly
  teaches rhyming and memory.
• No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed teaches
  counting.
• Itsy Bitsy Spider and the Wheels on the Bus
  teach coordinated movements.
• These songs help create the skills that are
  needed for math and reading later on.

7
Music and Transitions

• When music is part of the everyday schedule, it
  helps toddlers to feel more secure because they
  know what to expect.
• Bath timeNow its bath time, now its bath
  time, yes. It is. sung to Are You Sleeping?
• Brushing teethBrushing, Brushing, Brushing
  teeth. sung to London Bridge is Falling Down
• Put in bed the same lullaby every night. This
  helps the child cue in to that it is really time
  to sleep.

8
Want To Add Formal Music?

• Just before toddler-hood is the perfect age for
  bells, rattles, shakers, tambourines, or even
  rain sticks.
• Toddlers can play drums, cymbals, and xylophones.
• Older toddlers can do simple wind instruments
  like a pipe whistle, a kazoo or a recorder.
• If you want to do music classes, have them be no
  more than 45 minutes long, and reinforce the
  games and music learned at home.