Workshops for children

WORKSHOPS FOR CHILDREN

Walking in the Jungle

Musical workshop for the youngest English learners!

Based on his years of experience as a teacher of English as a foreign language, Danny created this musical game as a way to develop English language and music skills for preschoolers and kindergarteners. Through singing and movement, and accompanied by the magical sound of the balafon, children discover what animals live in this musical forest. Each animal is paired with a unique percussion instrument that correspond to the sounds. Children can try out all the instruments, making the session a fun and memorable learning experience.

Musical Storytelling Workshops

Dramatise a story with music! In Danny’s musical storytelling workshops, students from preschool through elementary explore how music and instruments can be incorporated in storytelling. Students participate in a variety of fun and engaging activities that help develop language, musical, and dramatic skills, including:

Learning how dynamics, tempo, pitch, and instrumentation can be used in a theatrical setting to make a performance more dramatic and exciting.
Practicing simple rhythms and polyrhythms, and learning how to produce different tones on hand drums and other instruments.
Participating in interactive group performances of well-known stories, during which they will need to respond to musical and dramatic cues.
Learning new songs and dances that go with familiar stories.
Thinking about and creating musical effects to represent characters and events in a story.
Exploring how music can be used to express emotions and ideas, and discovering new approaches and techniques for musical composition.
Working in small groups to compose and perform their own musical story.

Danny also gives musical storytelling workshops for students learning English as a foreign language.

Homemade Instrument Workshops

What defines a musical instrument? In the west we tend to think of instruments as expensive objects made by expert craftsmen, but in many parts of the world it is still common to build instruments from whatever tools and resources are available to the average person. In Danny’s homemade instrument workshops, students discover the music in everyday objects. Activities include:

Learning about homemade instruments in various cultures around the world
Learning how instruments work, and what makes a membranophone, aerophone, or idiophone
Building unique instruments from springs, balloons, tin cans, and other household objects and recycled materials
Making water drums, and exploring how water can be used to create remarkable musical effects
Creating “forest music” with common materials that might be found on a typical hike in the woods
Coming up with new ideas for unusual, surprising, or funny instruments
Experimenting with how to create real music from new instruments, rather than just silly sound effects

With older students, Danny’s homemade instrument workshops can easily be tied into larger lessons both about sustainability and the physics of sound.

Website: Jónizs János