Learning through Play
Children play. Games with rules, games of make-believe, games they create, games they learned from their brothers or sisters. And by playing, children learn. They make sense of the world, they learn to work together, they learn to think strategically, they learn to apply what they have learned in other situations to the game they’re playing now.
Music teachers have only a limited amount of time with our students. We can harness the power of play in our curriculum to maximize the learning that happens in our classrooms. Hopefully, we can also expand the number of minutes a week our students spend making music by teaching games that they want to play on their own.
Participants will learn traditional singing games and movement games for students of various ages. In addition, participants will explore how to help students create their own games for use in the classroom.
We are adjusting our membership structure this year to support the national Orff chapter AOSA. We will no longer have a local membership fee, instead we encourage you to invest in becoming a national member. Students, you can receive a free membership! A membership to AOSA will not only give you a discount to our workshops, but will give you access to a plethora of resources.
*** A $10 Fee will be added to walk-in registrations on October 15th.***
Andrew Ellingsen works as an Education Program Coordinator at Vesterheim Folk Art School. Ellingsen taught elementary music and worked as an instructional coach in Iowa and Minnesota for nearly twenty years. He earned his B.A. at Luther College and his M.A.M.E. at the University of St. Thomas with a dual concentration in Kodály and Orff Schulwerk. Ellingsen has taught movement in the Orff courses at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX, and the University of Memphis in Memphis, TN and has presented at both OAKE and AOSA national conferences.