Gross-Motor Kinesthetics... in a fine-motor art

At the risk of sounding redundant, one of the beautiful aspects of music education is the integration of all forms of learning - Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic... how music stimulates each lobe and center of the brain. The majority of the kinesthetic learning -and teaching- that takes place in music lessons is fine motor... which is only part of the motor coordination equation. Fine motor (small, detailed motions) and gross motor (large motion) skills work in tandem with each other; both are part of learning to coordinate brain and body.  So how do you integrate gross-motor kinesthetic learning into violin or piano lessons? With a giant floor staff!

Using heavy canvass and gross-grain ribbon, I created a giant staff with spaces big enough for feet to fit between. (But may I suggest permanent marker... stitching canvas is not fun)

Suddenly, lines and spaces become physical objects that feet can be 'on' and the question "is it on a line or space" has physical meaning.

 

Because an entire extremity - even the entire body - has to move in order to travel up and down the floor staff, music becomes a gross motor movement.

There are a plethora of games to be played and activities to use as scaffolding:

Lines and Spaces: Turn the line acrostic (Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge) into a chant and hop the chant. Bonus - it gets some wiggles out.

Sebastian Says: Simon Says, but with names or intervals. "Sebastian says G-line" "Sebastian says step-up" "Sebastian says skip down a third" etc.

Treasure Map: follow a string of directions/intervals or a piece of notation to land on a mystery line/space.

Twister-Sing: Sing (or play, for violin/viola) while stepping on the notes being played.

Like most of what we do in music, it's all about creativity. If you can think it, they can step it.