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In Mrs. Gregg-Chappell’s music class at Riverdale Elementary School, she shows students that music can help to develop the skills, attitudes and attributes that support learning in other curriculum subjects.

Co-Principals Tamee Railey and Kisha Watford observed Robin Gregg-Chappell reviewing with her first-grade students how to read rhythmic patterns and demonstrate expressive qualities of music, including changes in dynamics and tempo. Students counted beats as they would tap and repeat various patterns in kid’s songs from the smartboard. For example, the “TAP, TAP, WAIT, TAP, TAP, WAIT” with musical sticks was just as fun to watch as it was for the students to play the beats. They were excellent musicians that performed in unison while making hand gestures throughout each piece they played.

It is said that such music helps to develop a child’s spatial temporal reasoning skills, the ability to think in patterns, and many other attributes that support learning in other core subject areas. There’s power in music!