Japanese Childrenu27s Songs for Environmental Education: Environmental Education Curriculum for Edmunds Kindergarten in Burlington

摘要

This thesis examines potential effectiveness of Japanese childrenu27s songs as a material of childhood environmental education. The research shows if the songs could raise the environmental sensitivities of children with their poetic and artistic lyrics about nature and animals. I researched three different categories of Japanese childrenu27s songs: warabe-uta (early childrenu27s songs), shôka (childrenu27s songs for music education from the late 19th to the middle of the 20th century), and dôyô (childrenu27s songs created in the 20th and the 21st centuries). I also analyzed how the songs are related to nature, by referring some dôyô theories by the early time dôyô songwriters. Referring to those results, I developed and implemented the five environmental education lessons in the natural science class at Edmunds Kindergarten, Burlington, Vermont from February to April 2011. The entire curriculum is based on the combined idea of natural science, environmental education and global education.