Monday afternoon I
introduced a record player to the children. It had been sitting next
to my computer for months, but I had never said anything about it. I
finally brought it down to the floor and asked the children if they knew
what it was. "It plays music" they all said. Never being turned on, I
imagine the children saw the knobs, speakers, and plug- connecting it
to what they know about music players. I showed the children where the
radio was, where the tape player was, and where the CD's fit in. 
I
then brought out a record. The only thoughts I got were that it was a
big CD. Walking around with it, we noted the hole in the middle, the
stripes, and the color on the label. I described the record player and
all of its parts. We talked about the importance of not touching it-
not even teachers. Dirt and oil get in the grooves and makes the record
deteriorate. We talked about the case the record was in and how it
described the music inside. 
Throughout
the day we listened to the record player. I saw more of an interest in
music. Children would sit around the player, just watching and
dancing. Repeating this process on Tuesday
proved to be the same type of interest. I saw a more dancing and
discussion of music artists (Beach Boys being a favorite to dance to).
I
plan on keeping this record player an important part of our classroom.
After all, how often do you actually "see" music being played?
