The effect of making children at the nursery age use orff instruments on developing their rhythm skills

The Orff method is training for developing the rhythm skills of children starting from the age limit of 5 and 6 years. With this method, it is aimed that children learn music while having fun, develop their creativity status together with improvisation, that they accompany the music with simple rhythm instruments, and develop the sense of belonging to a group under a certain discipline, logical thinking and language skills. With the music education given in the preschool period, the cognitive affective and psychomotor skills of a child develop and provide the basis for the elementary school step. Our study, in which we explained the Orff method that is applied by experts for children in the 5-6-year age range to express themselves better by contributing to their personality development, consist of five sections. In the first section of our study, the developmental periods of a child, the effects of music on a child, the active learning approaches in music and the Orff method were examined by carrying out a literature review. The developmental periods of a child were examined on the basis of the basic theories related to the personal development and the phases in the child development were explained by associating them with the music education. According to the results of the study, plans should be created in line with the interests and skills of children in the preschool period by paying attention to their developmental periods, nursery teachers should ensure that children are willing and active in the activities in the class. The activities in the Orff method should be carried out by taking the age, preparedness levels, and maturity processes of children into consideration. Nursery teachers should include simple rhythm patterns while teaching the Orff method and ensure that children benefit from the Orff instruments in the best way during the classes. Keywords: Developmental Periods, Active Learning Approaches, Orff Education and Orff instruments.