Introduction

This introduction provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book details a project involving a visiting musician, Catherine Reding, exploring relationships between music and movement in a nursery setting. It offers descriptions of ongoing projects like the Talking Table and the Helicopter Technique, which can be adopted by nurseries and reception classes. These approaches allow children to speak, draw, enact or sing a song in the service of joint storytelling. The holistic nature of young children's learning is suggested by the fusion of sensory modes: Musical movers, the story of paintings, the drama of sound, the sounds of leaping or the drama of story. The book explains in new ways using refreshed metaphors: the teaching/learning process is seen as scaffolding or weaving rather than the funnelling, packaging or transmitting of ideas.