Music is Magic

Listening and responding to music is an important part of music classes in The Experiential School of Tampa Bay. This week, Jr. Kindergarten students learned that composers typically write one of three types of music: music that tells a story, music that paints a picture, or "pure" music.

Students spent time listening to "The Enchanted Garden" by Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), which paints a picture in the listener's mind of a magical garden in early morning. Then, in a visual art and music integration activity, they took crayon to paper as they were listening to the piece, and used critical thinking skills to reflect and interpret what they heard by creating their very own picture of an enchanted garden.

The end results were, indeed, magical, as the children held up and expressed excitement and appreciation for everyone's musical piece of art.