Follow others more purposefully when singing/playing together and act as a leader themselves
Introduce activities with instruments that involve children copying a leader. This could be copying a pulse/beat or rhythmic pattern, or matching the dynamics or tempo of the leader. Invite children to be the leader.
Provide opportunities for children to ‘conduct’ others in instrumental playing, using agreed signals to show start/stop, pitch, dynamics, tempo etc.
Provide opportunities for children to create their own verse of a song and encourage others to copy (e.g. in the scarf song ‘Going Up, Going Down’, ask ‘How else can we move?’ ‘Great idea Jess, let’s do that!’).
Provide opportunities for children to develop their skills of working together, modelling skills of collaboration, turn-taking etc.
Providing these opportunities is vital, but note that young children take time to move from being egocentric to being aware and concerned about others. It can take until age 6/7 for children to be able to work collaboratively together.
It is always interesting to observe who the leaders are (and provide others with the opportunity to lead as appropriate). In a partner activity, it is common for young children to work alongside each other rather than as actual partners. Be ready for two ‘leaders’ to clash if they want different things to happen. Equally be ready for two with less maturity to just sit back, watch and wait for encouragement.
Create opportunities for children to interact with a partner through music and movement, e.g. one child plays a rhythmic pattern on a drum or tambourine while the other moves, then they swap, creating a short dance-drum conversation.
This promotes turn-taking, listening and collaborative creativity.
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