Music Maker at Home Teacher Guide
Music Maker at Home Teacher Guide
Teacher’s Guidebook
and Resource Materials
for Group Instruction
Includes 125 Resource Cards
and a Lesson Planning Binder
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means without the prior written permission of Music Matters, Inc.
Every reasonable effort has been taken to trace ownership of copyrighted material and to make due acknowledg-
ment. Any errors or omissions will be gladly rectified in future editions.
Related Programs:
My Neighborhood Community
Seashore
Additional Programs:
Drumming and Dancing Nature Trail
God’s Children Sing Nimble & Quick
My Musical World Seashore
My Neighborhood Community Summer
Nature’s Music Twist &Turn
Introduction to Music Makers: At the Keyboard
Musikgarten/Music Matters
507 Arlington Street
Greensboro, NC 27406
1-800-216-6864
www.musikgarten.org ISBN 1-885537-10-7
1 Preface 5
1.1 The Music Makers Programs 5
1.2 Musikgarten: An Integrated Approach to Music Education 6
1.3 Working with Parents 10
2 Themes 12
2.1 Home Place 12
2.2 Posters and Game Pieces 13
2.3 My Home Place 14
2.4 Woodlands 22
2.5 Cattail Marsh 30
2.6 Meadow 40
3 Listening 51
3.1 Nature’s Voices 51
3.2 Instruments and Ensembles 52
4 Movement 55
4.1 Introduction 57
4.2 Stationary Movement 58
4.3 Traveling Movement 61
4.4 Singing Games and Dances 63
5 Vocal Development 104
5.1 Introduction 105
5.2 Individual Vocal Development 105
5.3 Greeting and Name Songs 106
5.4 Call-and-Respond Songs 109
6 Playing Instruments 114
6.1 Instruments and Accessories 115
6.2 Building Ensemble 117
6.3 Activities 120
7 Pathway to Literacy 148
7.1 Introduction 149
7.2 Building Pattern Vocabulary 150
7.3 Aural Recognition Games 152
7.4 Writing and Reading: Graphic Notation 154
7.5 Writing and Reading: Traditional Notation 160
7.6 Writing and Reading: Symbols and Staff 169
8 Lesson Suggestions 171
8.1 Introduction 171
8.2 My Home Place (Lessons 1-7) 173
8.3 Woodlands (Lessons 8-15) 180
8.4 Cattail Marsh (Lessons 16-22) 188
8.5 Meadow (Lessons 23-30) 195
Addenda
Track Lists for All Recordings 203
Cross Reference Lists: Minor Tonality or Church Modes, Triple Meter 206
Mixed Meter, Range Index
Alphabetical Index 208
Lorna Lutz Heyge, Ph.D., is well-known as the perception of tried and true favorites together with
author of the Musikgarten Music and Movement his feeling for children’s music makes him a unique
Series, a comprehensive music education program for and sensitive artist in this field. His recordings bring a
children from birth to age 9. She has been developing synthesis to the basic ideas of the pedagogy – music,
preparatory music materials since 1971 and is movement, language, and nature.
recognized internationally as a music educator and
teacher trainer in the field of early childhood music Aileen Fisher
and movement. Dr. Heyge holds degrees from the Horse-and-buggy days were waning when Aileen
Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University Fisher was born in Iron River, a small mining town
and the University of Cologne in Germany. Lorna in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Growing up in
Heyge is the founder and president of Musikgarten as a rural community is the life she remembers most
well as the Musikgarten Foundation. vividly when writing verses for children. Recipient
of many awards, including the Western Writers of
Audrey Sillick America Award for Juvenile Nonfiction and the Award
Known throughout Canada and the United States for Children’s Poetry by the National Council of
as an exceptional educator in the field of early Teachers of English, Fisher has written juvenile plays,
childhood development, Audrey Sillick’s particular stories for young children, and over fifty collections of
areas of expertise concern the role of movement in poetry. Ms. Fisher brings to Music Makers: At Home
learning, the process of language acquisition, and the in the World poetry of the earth which will awaken
understanding of the child in nature. She has been the senses of children, both young and old, to the
actively involved in Montessori education for over natural world.
thirty years, is the Founder and Director Emeritus of
the Toronto Montessori Teacher Training Institute Anne Marshall Runyon
and is coauthor of the Musikgarten Music and Ms. Runyon, a natural science illustrator, is well-
Movement Series. A national speaker and workshop known for her work with the North Carolina wildlife
leader for Early Childhood Music and Movement commission. After completing her Art and Design
Educators, Montessori Educators, and the Earth degrees at Carleton College and the University of
Education Movement, Mrs. Sillick brings to the Minnesota, Ms. Runyon has done creative work
publication her great wisdom and understanding of for many clients including the University of North
young children. Carolina, Western Publishing, and Ciba-Geigy. In
describing her own work she writes, “I feel that the
Howard Baer discipline of live drawing and the fieldwork that
Howard Baer brings to Music Makers: At Home in it requires is vital to the nature artist. Sometimes,
the World over thirty-five years of studio recording especially when I work with photographs, I will act out
experience as a musical arranger/producer, composer, a gesture that I am drawing – trying to feel the bend
keyboardist, musical director, and conductor. Baer of the branch, the tension of the stalking predator, or
has had over 5000 of his arrangements recorded, the alarm widening the eyes of the prey.” Ms. Runyon
has received four JUNO nominations for album created the magnificent posters and game pieces for
productions, and has composed and conducted this publication.
numerous scores for TV and film, including Sesame
Street and the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary.
He has been the music producer for IMAX films,
including the widely publicized Titanica. His music
productions for children include work with such
publishers as Hohner, Schott International, Macmillan
McGraw-Hill, and Silver Burdett. Mr. Baer’s fresh
1 PREFACE
1.1 The Music Makers Programs
The Music Makers Programs were created by safe place where humans and animals alike feel most
Musikgarten to lead children to the next step in their secure and able to develop freely. The Home Places
musical lives - into the wonderful world of more featured are My Home Place (a child’s home and
conscious, active music making. The Musikgarten garden), Woodlands, Cattail Marsh, and Meadow.
Music and Movement Series offers children from
birth to age five three programs of informal music- Companion Materials
making: Family Music for Babies, Family Music • Posters and Game Pieces. A special highlight
for Toddlers, and The Cycle of Seasons. In these of the program is the artwork, commissioned by
programs the musical interest and ability of the child Musikgarten from North Carolina natural artist,
and the musical life of the family are nurtured in age- Anne Marshall Runyon. The posters are full of detail
appropriate ways. Musikgarten’s curricula are based about animals and plants in each habitat. They are
on understanding children’s needs – developmental, suggestive of many sounds, and informative about
musical and experiential – and understanding how they nature. Each poster is accompanied by several Game
learn. Pieces that allow the children to interact with each
habitat.
The Music Makers Programs build on the • Recordings. Five CDs accompany the program,
competencies the children have gained in the first featuring a broad repertoire of songs, sounds, and
years, leading eventually to Musikgarten’s highly stories for the Home Place themes. An additional
acclaimed group piano instruction program, Music thematic feature is the introduction of the families of
Makers: At the Keyboard. Music Makers: At Home instruments: brass, woodwinds, strings, percussion
in the World is the cornerstone, the turning point. and a special ensemble of recorder, drum and
Children are rapidly gaining language and motor skills, guitar. The instruments can be heard individually,
and at about age four are ready to gradually begin playing children’s repertoire, and playing classical
sequential learning. repertoire.
• Instrument Pages. Five color pages illustrate the
Music Makers: At Home in the World presents instruments and players in the ensembles.
materials for the first year of a sequential program. • Notation Games. Six manipulative games enable
The program includes a guidebook, posters with game the children to play with the puzzles which lead to
pieces, recordings and notation games for the teacher; understanding notation.
recordings, folder/posters with game pieces, notation • Family Packets. To enable parent involvement,
games, instrument pictures and parent books are which is a critical element for the children’s
provided for the families at home. learning, there is a CD, folder/poster, game pieces,
instrument pages, notation game(s), and a parent
Teacher’s Guidebook (208 pages) with 125 resource book for each of the four units.
cards and a lesson planning binder • Music Makers Album. Notebook for collecting
The Teacher’s Guidebook presents a clear step-by- the children’s poster/folders, notation games and
step approach that will enable children’s musical drawings.
development through moving, listening, singing, and
playing instruments. This curriculum features age- Note: Two additional habitats are available as separate
appropriate building of ensemble skills and a first programs, appropriate for summer camps as well as
introduction to writing and reading notation. There are other through-the-year programs: My Neighborhood
30 lessons, material intended for 9 months of study. Community and Seashore.
The thematic material is based on Home Place – that
1.2 Musikgarten: An
Integrated Approach
to Music Education The Curriculum
Musikgarten is committed to a holistic and integrated The core areas of Musikgarten curricula are
approach to music education. Musikgarten curricula movement, focused listening, singing, and playing
address the whole mind-brain/body entity, giving instruments. A pathway to literacy is a key element in
children a total musical experience. all Musikgarten curricula; initially this is exhibited in
the building of an intentional vocabulary of patterns.
Whether listening or moving, vocalizing or playing Music Makers: At Home in the World introduces two
an instrument, creating or reading music, or enjoying specific, age-appropriate new skill layers: building
an ensemble, the focus is on the process, not on a ensemble and an introduction to writing and reading.
performance.
Movement
When the environment speaks to the children,
they bring to it a creative spontaneity that cannot Physical activity for young children is exhilarating and
be commanded, but simply coalesces. The whole energizing. A child’s full repertoire of movements is
being interacts on a sensory, feeling, thinking, and developed through experimentation and discovery –
moving plane. The development of the whole child learning by doing. Whereas all children have a natural
– psychologically, physically, emotionally, and urge to move and a critical developmental period in
socially – occurs in an integrated manner when the which to acquire coordination of the sensory-motor
whole personality is actively engaged in this dynamic system, adults can play a significant role by helping
process. them to develop control of the physical mechanics
of movement. Children, with their inner sense of the
Age and Experience Level of the Children kind of movement their body/mind needs, will practice
(repeat) movement variations relentlessly.
Music Makers: At Home in the World is written for
children who have had experience in informal music- All muscular and mental activity is movement.
making and are ready for their first experience with Movement involves the central nervous system, which
a program which introduces sequential pathways to activates and directs the muscular system, which in
learning specific skills. turn responds to the input of the senses. This brings
mind-brain and body into play as an interconnected
We highly recommend that a child’s first group functioning system. At birth all the systems are
musical instruction be in a setting of active music- incomplete, and the structures are rudimentary: the
making without the direct building of skills in systems must develop functions and integration as a
sequenced activities – just singing, moving, listening, whole unit. The nervous system, guided by the brain,
and playing instruments. The Cycle of Seasons must introduce order to the stimuli that bombard
provides many suitable activities, as well as lesson the senses; it must begin the tremendous task of
plans, which are appropriate first experiences for mobilizing the muscular action system to respond and
children through five years of age. adjust appropriately.
The Music Makers lessons are intended for children
from ages four (with previous musical experience) Movement in the human being is our clearest example
to seven. The teacher will be able to determine the of mind-brain (central nervous system) and body
levels of challenge needed by observing the children (sensory and muscular systems) functioning as a
carefully and adjusting the lessons accordingly. whole interdependent unit. We seek to help the child
make movement purposeful, so that mind-brain and
body movement are part of the same entity. Voluntary The human ear as the organ of balance and equilibrium
control and direction of muscular movement occurs in innervates the entire body. Equilibrium means a notion
the brain in response to environmental stimuli received of space, of environment, of body consciousness.
by the senses. This is a thought-will-action cycle of When in motion, the body is governed by its notion of
events. the upright position. Both the vestibular nerve (balance
of equilibrium) and the auditory nerve (hearing)
As the child develops control of movement, s/he reach the same area of the brain, the cerebellum. Both
frees the body to express his/her individuality. As have a relation to all the motor nerves that control
s/he continues to gain control, the body becomes all movement. When we understand the dual role of
a rhythmic, graceful instrument through which the ear, the wholeness of the child suddenly takes
music can be expressed. Movement is central in the on new meaning in the context of learning and the
Musikgarten curricula for four basic reasons: integration of the whole personality, both physical and
1. It is the children’s favorite way of learning. psychological.
2. It is the children’s deepest way of learning.
3. It energizes the children. The ear is the sense organ par excellence. The ear
4. Gaining body control frees the ear to develop is a finely tuned instrument that never sleeps. The
the superior listening skills required for music body experiences sound over its entire surface as
study. airwaves touch it. In that sense, the skin is a tympanic
membrane, responding to vibrations that surround us
Listening in an ocean of sound stimulation. The human ear is
characterized by the ability to listen selectively; thus, it
All of the curricula in the Music and Movement Series provides the basis for all communication and therefore
place central emphasis upon the ear and its unique for all learning. To engage the child’s listening attitude
function in human development. We have known for opens the way to a learning engagement with the
decades about the importance of the ear in learning, world around him/her.
but have only poorly understood how to apply this
knowledge. The human ear is the most important Music Makers: At Home in the World offers focused
sensory organ for learning, governing the vestibular listening opportunities to nurture the child’s ability:
function (body position, balance and equilibrium,
posture and body consciousness) and the auditory to listen (critically) to self.
function. To develop body image both functions are to focus on and identify sounds in isolation.
needed. Listening is a conscious directing of the ear to identify and appreciate sounds within an
to a sound source to capture and integrate information ensemble, in the world of nature
selectively. The vestibular function alerts the whole as well as in musical ensembles.
body posture to a “listening attitude.” to become acquainted with the families of
instruments and their individual members.
The Listening experience is central to education to consider and appreciate music of many styles
because it is a first step in all learning. Since the ear and periods.
controls both verticality and audition, human language,
both spoken and music, develops as a total body Vocal Development
experience. Self-listening is the beginning of language,
and focused listening is the basis for cognitive All children can learn to sing. The voice is our most
development, reasoning, social argument, and important musical instrument, and the children bring it
dialogue. Listening to music, not just having music in with them on the first day. The use of the child’s own
the background, also draws on the creative imagination voice and body is the point of departure for his/her
and can soothe or arouse the emotions. musical involvement and development.
Unit includes:
Instrument Pages: Recorder, Drum, Guitar, and Brass
Ensemble Development Repertoire: The Workshop, The Tree in the Wood
Write/Read Exercises: Graphic Notation Cards, Long and Short, Snail
My Home Place
Voices: Dog, Indoor Bird, Cat Listening Time 204 123A MHP 6-8
My Cat Poem 20 7A
Parent Time
Note: The Nature’s Voices CD also includes listening examples for the other two habitats available in the Music
Makers programs: My Neighborhood Community and Seashore.