Mind Mapping & Making Music in Early Childhood with Debbie Clement

MUSIC! MUSIC! MUSIC!!!

Once upon a time there was a music-lady. 

Actually. Before that she was an elementary Art teacher..... 

but let's just start with the music-lady chapter, 

which is now unfolding in the 19th year of evolution. 

The music-lady travels about the country sharing her ideas, songs and 

happy sing-song simple, repetitive approach with teachers near and far. 

In the course of those travels she saw this "Mind Map" displayed in the hallways of Concordia College's Early Childhood Building, in Chicago. 

It stole her heart. Literally. Completely.

This simple graphic inspired our artsy-music-lady. 

This mind-map started a gazillion thoughts all these years later. 

What if she could capture & summarize her insight onto one page?

So she got out her dry erase board and started thinking. 

That lead to grabbing a great drawing marker and some colored pencils.

Here's what things looked like early on. 

[Maybe you saw that image on her Instagram feed this summer?] 

MUSIC: At the heart of it all! 

Singing is 'within' music. 

So that's where I started. 

I put the word singing in the middle of my page.  

Then I built everything out from that starting point. 

There are a bajillion benefits to singing {and music.} 

I looked at two major categories of benefits. 

Moving above the word singing are all of the benefits that arise in what I have classified as the 'language' division, arising from the lyrics within the song. 

Below the word 'singing' are the benefits that arise from the beat. 

I think of the beat as the foundation for my song/the music. 

You will see I have then divided those benefits into two major compartments: 

-INSTRUMENTS 

-MOVEMENT 

My finished "Mind Map" is now in pdf format and can be downloaded for

 FREE at Teachers Pay Teachers!

This is what it looked like just prior to being 'finished.'

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***I have TWO earlier articles here at blog-Rainbow, 

where I have attempted to spell out my approach. 

If you click the picture you will be transported back in time. 

Debbie's Dozen Directions for Classroom Music 

Music as Motivator: Intelligence Theory and MORE! 


I spend an inordinate amount of time sharing visual images here. 
Let's conclude today with some of my favorite 'visuals' from the MUSIC world. 


This first bulletin board was so WIDE it was impossible
 for me to photograph the entire image. 
This is from my school visit in Arlington, outside of DC.

Look at the 'header' from one of my newest Twitter followers! 

What an incredible collaborative MUSIC bulletin Board. 

Sue gave me permission to use it in this article. 

THANKS!

MUSIC PEOPLE. TEACHERS. LIBRARIANS! 
My intro-freebie song is "Going to the Library" 
which is available for immediate download at Teachers Pay Teachers. 



I have written over 100 original songs. 
The two that I think are the *MOST* perfect for the beginning of the school year are: 

"You're Wonderful" and 
"Red, White and Blue" 



Each of these two songs I have turned into the traditional picture book format. 
There is a CD insert with the sung version & also the instrumental version. 
Also included in the end-matter are charts for both sign language and music instrumentation. 

-- Debbie