Action Research On The Construction Of Musical Activities In Kindergarten Drama Theme Activities

Drama activities has always been important in pre-school education. In the time when the goal of the drama activities used to be the final presentation on stage, the teachers took the measure of rehearsals while the children carried out the performances in the form of singing, dancing or dialogues. Given children's inadequacy in their verbal ability, the element of music therefore played a pivotal role in the drama activities. Now, however, the drama activities' educational value as a curriculum has been gradually recognized in kindergartens. And many of them have designed drama activities in the belief that they can help the children improve various abilities. But regrettably, the musical activities, despite their continuous significance in the drama activities, still fail to realize its educational value or play an instrumental role in helping the children develop in the drama activities as they are still confined in rehearsals.To solve the problem, the author has conducted a study as an effort to find a viable pattern for musical activities oriented for the children's develpopment in the drama activities. In order to let the musical activities discard its confinement in rehearsals, the study also tries to find an optimized place for music in the drama activities and understand how music and drama activities should interact. The study, which is guided by constructivism and its teaching organization strategies,attempts to solve the practical problems in action research.Strictly following the steps of action research which include planning for action, collecting data, analysis of data and planning for future actions, the study has a research team comprised of the teachers and researchers in the kindergarten where the action research takes place. The author of the paper and the team join hand to design several musical activities in two theatre-related activities. The entire study has two parts. The first part is to find ways to free musical activities from mere rehearsals and to understand the possible educational value of musical activities in theatre-related activities. The second part is to construct a viable pattern for music activities which attaches more importance to the children constructing their experience during the process.The study has the following conclusions. Firstly, drama activities have offered a vast platform for musical activities to realize its value. Secondly, musical activities can be one important support for a children-centered drama activity. And thirdly, there are basic procedures to be observed in musical activities: teachers should make plans first, choose the stories and plots and assign the roles to the children based on their existing experience; then the teachers should send out assignments to the children, organize a team discussion among them, help them to practice in divided groups and eventually let the children come up with their own plans and implement the plans. Children should also be encouraged to have reflections on the entire process after the performance is over.