Wolf Trap Workshop!

Just a quick post tonight! I attended a workshop from 4-7 tonight about teaching effective listening skills through the use of music. It was presented by a Wolf Trap Master Teaching Artist, Mary Gresock. In case you didn't know, Wolf Trap is a national park in Virginia, dedicated to presenting the performing arts. Ms. Gresock came to our town as part of a STEM program by the Northrop Grumman Foundation. It was great to see a company investing in early childhood education! Ms. Gresock had some wonderful ideas for focusing students' attention on sound and how that relates to both science (exploration, predictions etc) as well as emergent literacy (distinguishing between different sounds, building fluency through awareness of pitch, rhythm and tempo etc.).

She did a lot of "student participation" stories, such as "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything ", where the students get to make some of the sounds in the story. One story I had not heard of before was "Too Much Noise " by Ann Mcgovern:

I got to play the part of the "village wise man" complete with robe and beard! Yes, out of 50+ prek-1st teachers I was the only one to volunteer lol. Here's a picture:

I am definitely adding this story to my library - it was so much fun to act it out with other teachers, I can just imagine how much fun it will be with my students! I will be trying out some of the other books she recommended and will let you know how they go! Have a good night!