INCLUSIVE EDUCATION THROUGH MUSIC AND DANCE

In our education system, where we have adopted inclusive education, we aim to develop our children in terms of mental development as well as other areas of development by exposing them to various number and quality stimulants at these ages when they are most sensitive and open to learning.

Here are the aims of our online mobility activity,in which we have presented to the participants that music has a strong impact on teaching and learning:

- Introduction of the school unit and local cultural heritage,

- Introduction of the education system,

- Presentation of the ORFF method and the use of recyclable materials in the creation of musical instruments,

- Presentation of music education activities that foster, communicate and sustain collaborative learning,

- The presentation of strategies in which music and dance help children identify emotions. In our special purposes;

- To develop children's creative thinking skills and communication skills,

- To let the students dance according to the rhythm and words of the music,

- To create rhythm ears in children by performing body percussion exercises,

- To enable the students to perform various movements one after the other, accompanied by music and rhythm. We have demonstrated the power of music in education in the activities we held in our classrooms and with our rhythm studies.

At the same time, we have supported the development of our children's self-care, mind, language, social, emotional and motor skills by providing appropriate educational opportunities. The contribution of rhythm instruments is inevitable in supporting rhythm perception and learning. All kinds of instruments that sound interesting can be used in dance accompaniment. Acting in accordance with the sound of the instruments with each beat rhythm provides great convenience in learning the dance. Rhythm and musical movements help people discover their own abilities and the limits of these abilities. Music and rhythm also help the child to develop self-confidence by providing self-confidence. It enables children to know themselves, to gain control over their own body and to strengthen their body. It is to help children discover their creative aspects and relax mentally by supporting the development of small and large muscles with regular irregular movements while keeping the rhythm. In our family participation studies, we wanted our children to design musical instruments that they would use in orff activities. Using the unifying power of music, we included all children and families in the process. Within the scope of our project, we made drums, maracas, xylophone, cymbals and rhythm sticks, which are orff rhythm instruments, to be used in our events, with the contributions of our parents, and we included our parents in the project. At the same time, by guiding them to practice rhythm at home with these rhythm instruments they made, we contributed to them both enjoying this work and spending quality time with their children.

At the end of the activity, it was observed that the students gained the targeted skills. It was observed that the awareness of the students in rhythm studies and their participation in rhythm activities increased, and they participated more fondly and with interest. It was observed that their interest in music increased. They started to create their own unique rhythms in the classroom. They started experimenting with how they could make a sound using different materials. The inclusion of music, movement and orff in the process helped children develop their perceptions by appealing to their auditory and visual senses. Singing and dancing together are activities that enable people to become a group and unite. These activity processes also contributed greatly to the socialization of children. We enabled the child to hear what he heard, to understand what he heard, to learn to say the words correctly and clearly, to relax in the group, to be with others without drawing attention, to try without fear of making mistakes, to learn to communicate effectively, to learn the concepts permanently.

For more informations and pictures from the activites and the online mobility you can find it on Facebook group of the project https://www.facebook.com/Together-for-an-inclusive-future

This project is funded by Erasmus+ programme