Music and math have always been connected. Even simple songs like “Old McDonald” incorporate many basic math skills, including matching and comparing through changes in pitch, volume and rhythm, patterning and sequencing and counting and addition. Research has shown that even young children learn math when they participate in early childhood music and movement classes. Below are the three math skills children learn through music!

1. Pattern Play

By using simple rhymes, chants, and games with music children can pick up on patterns. Moving in a different way during each section of the song, helps children identify the parts that make up the whole. Songs like “Father Abraham”, “pat-a-cake.”

2. Geometry

Children can develop skills in geometry through circle dances, playing musical instruments and moving in different ways. Combining movement with words like “in and out, “up and down, or “around and through” help build spatial awareness and spatial-temporal reasoning skills which are the basis for geometry.

3. Numbers

Counting rhymes, singing songs and hand movements include numbers. Through activities such as plucking a violin with two fingers, or counting steps in a morning dance are easy ways that combine music and early math concepts. Children learn basic math skills including counting, sequencing and one-to-one correspondence.

Music and movement lessons are a great way to prepare children for success in math, by playing instruments and being an active participant in a music curriculum, children can be set up on the path to success in math.