Aspects of song making in 5-year-old children's free play

Abstract

Objectives This study observed the musical expression and musical play of 5-year-old children in free play, and examined the genre of songs and the aspects of song-making in the process.
 Methods The researcher was participatory observation 16 5-year-old children from A daycare center located in D city for about 6 months from March to August 2021. Data were collected through video recording and recording of the process of making songs spontaneously appearing in children's free play, and data such as teacher's observation diary and researcher's diary were additionally collected and analyzed.
 Results First, song-making in the free play of 5-year-olds started with various genres of music, and appeared as trot singing, changing the words of a song while singing a cartoon theme, and making a new song with a nursery rhyme. Second, the aspects of children's voluntary song-making were expressed by expressing rhythm, playing scales with melodic instruments, and changing the words of the song, and they made Bora class battle cry, our class songs, and welcome songs.
 Conclusions This suggests that educational support for the provision and utilization of various music genres is necessary for young children's creative music-making experience, and music utilizing musical elements such as rhythm, melody, tone, and form to develop musical expression and cognitive ability. It suggests that there is a need to actively provide activities. In addition, it suggests that teachers should be sensitive to children's active musical expressions and reactions, focus on children's creativity in musical activities, and pay attention to new music created by children.