Teaching Kids About Time 🕰 Through Music + Art 🎶
If you want a child to remember something,
put it to song. Music
makes everything “stick.”
I have been teaching my eldest about the clock and I wanted to share this fun musical lesson I created that incorporates music and art.
Understanding the Concept of a “Second.”
The concept of time (seconds, minutes and hours) is a very abstract idea to most children. They naturally do not keep track of time like adults, and live in the moment. When teaching about how to tell the time, it is enormously helpful to bring the idea of “time” into the body and give it a concrete meaning that makes sense to a child.
This is where music and movement can shine! Music is time and children often understand music organically and can feel the pulse of music.
Leroy Anderson’s “The Syncopated Clock,” is a wonderful piece to establish this sense of time, because the beat is literally heard with a clock ticking sound and because it’s all about a clock and children will remember this very distinct melody. Now a little warning for the non-musicians. There is some moments in the music where the “ticking sound” stops, but it is actually a golden moment of learning for the child. You can take the opportunity to teach them that the beat (ticking) keeps going even though they didn’t hear it. This will build their musicianship skills at the same time.
Leroy Anderson’s “The Syncopated Clock.”
In This Lesson:
We will use a traditional Waldorf Math verse and sing it to the melody of “The Syncopated Clock,” to teach the concepts of what constitutes a minute and an hour and how time is made up of seconds.
We will keep a beat (the ticking) to represent the second, and use large circle movement to bring learning into the body.
We will create a movable clock out of watercolor paper to make a useful learning tool that the child will be immensely proud of and will be useful for many months to come.
Waldorf Math Verse
By Dorothy Harrer
“60 seconds makes a minute,
Put a lot of kindness in it.
60 minutes makes an hour,
Work with all your might and power.
12 bright hours make a day,
Time enough for work and play.
12 dark hours through the night,
Give us sleep till morning light.”
Singing the Verse to the melody of “The Syncopated Clock.”
(Please excuse my 🤧 congested singing voice, as I am still recovering from a head cold. And please subscribe to my channel to help me make it to 1,000 where I can monetize. 🙏 )
Large Circle Movement
Create a circle on the ground using carpet stickers, street chalk, string, tape etc, that is big enough for them to walk around acting out the second hand of the clock.
Play “The Syncopated Clock” while walking rhythmically to the beat around the clock. You can even clap or use rhythm sticks to actively tick the beat. Reinforce that this is the seconds ticking by and make sure to keep moving and keeping the beat, even when the clock tick goes quiet!
Making a Movable Clock
I got the inspiration for this clock from Pinterest. There are many amazing versions!
Supplies We Used To Make the Clock
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