‘Sing Move Play’ combines children’s imaginations with song
Children used their imaginations to make crafts and build a haunted house while learning rhythm from Slippery Rock University music education students on Saturday, Oct. 18.
“Sing Move Play — Halloween” took place at Swope Music Hall on SRU’s campus and brought children ages 8 and under to a program designed by students from the university’s early childhood education and music education programs. Children were also encouraged to wear costumes.
The free family activity, spawned from an elementary music community engagement initiative, saw juniors Raven Ordoña and Matt Fuhrer, both music education majors, lead a handful of children — and ghosts and dragons — through a Halloween-themed interactive sing-along where the children helped come up with the songs.
“It’s very easy to be like, ‘October’ and ‘Halloween,’ and we wanted to give something more interactive,” Fuhrer said.
After playing the ukulele to the accompaniment of the children singing for about 15 minutes, Ordoña switched to the piano as Fuhrer led the group through a scavenger hunt throughout the room where they gathered supplies to build a haunted house.
Ordoña said their original idea was to escape the haunted house, but they wanted to come up with something less “anxiety-inducing.”
Ordoña and Fuhrer said their favorite parts of the activity are coming up with the music and teaching children how to keep a beat, one of the most basic elements of music.
“It just gives us such a great experience on how to apply our musicianship into pedagogy for little children,” Ordoña said.
Afterward, the group decorated masks and paper plates, organized by music education senior Maura Hill, with coloring supplies and sticker sheets. Children also received a goodie bag to take home.
Hill said one of her favorite parts of the activity is seeing the younger student volunteers begin to interact with kids and their parents and get a glimpse of what they could be doing in the future.
For many of the music education students who participated in helping to make crafts, it was their first time interacting with children in a professional setting outside their field class, according to Cassandra Eisenreich, an associate professor of flute and music education at SRU and a member of the Butler County Symphony Orchestra.
“She’s fantastic,” Ordoña said of Eisenreich. “She’s what makes this all happen and what makes it possible to be able to learn how to teach kids at this age.”
Fuhrer explained music education students complete field courses. They begin with observation and advance to teaching music at various levels.
The next event for the initiative will be “Tuneful Tales — The City & Country Mouse,” which begins at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, in Swope Music Hall.
