When the educators at Goodstart Box Hill – Canterbury Road asked the preschool children what they would like on the back wall of their playground, they came up with the idea of a musical garden.
Pots and pans would be attached to fence, allowing the children to “make music” during their playtimes.
Their vision has become a reality, thanks to the help of the families’ donations of pots and pans, and the hard work of four of the dads, who came in to build the musical garden.
Box Hill centre director Brooke Garwood said the idea was to recycle old cooking equipment to give the children a chance to express their musical talents.
“We went to Bunnings and got a bit of the equipment, but four of the dads offered their time and tools and so we took it from there,” Ms Garwood said.
Sustainability is important to the educators at the centre, who recently held a competition to see who could recycle the most equipment in their rooms. The children also did a project where they collected natural items from their communities and created an interactive table.
The garden became a reality about five weeks ago and the children couldn’t be happier.
“It’s had a fantastic reaction from the preschool children and they also loved watching the dads put it together and create a special place for them to play.”
And while it may not be formal musical learning, research does show music training in early life can have a wide range of benefits, including better brain responses to consonants and speech development.
“it’s a lovely thing for the children to be engaged in,” Ms Garwood said. “It’s along the back wall of the centre so the noise doesn’t impact us too much and it was a great idea by the preschoolers.”
Pots and pans would be attached to fence, allowing the children to “make music” during their playtimes.
Their vision has become a reality, thanks to the help of the families’ donations of pots and pans, and the hard work of four of the dads, who came in to build the musical garden.
Box Hill centre director Brooke Garwood said the idea was to recycle old cooking equipment to give the children a chance to express their musical talents.
“We went to Bunnings and got a bit of the equipment, but four of the dads offered their time and tools and so we took it from there,” Ms Garwood said.
Sustainability is important to the educators at the centre, who recently held a competition to see who could recycle the most equipment in their rooms. The children also did a project where they collected natural items from their communities and created an interactive table.
The garden became a reality about five weeks ago and the children couldn’t be happier.
“It’s had a fantastic reaction from the preschool children and they also loved watching the dads put it together and create a special place for them to play.”
And while it may not be formal musical learning, research does show music training in early life can have a wide range of benefits, including better brain responses to consonants and speech development.
“it’s a lovely thing for the children to be engaged in,” Ms Garwood said. “It’s along the back wall of the centre so the noise doesn’t impact us too much and it was a great idea by the preschoolers.”