Rethinking Creative Listening: Helping Kindergarten Students Move Beyond Literal Responses

Jennifer Cobb

Jennifer Cobb,

Archbold Area Schools

Many music educators assume that young children naturally respond imaginatively to music. However, classroom experience may reveal that kindergarten students often respond to listening activities in literal ways. This article explores how scaffolding creative listening experiences through concrete starting points can support divergent thinking in early elementary music classrooms. By connecting musical elements to feelings, movement, and reflection, students begin to construct their own musical understanding and develop deeper personal connections to music.

For a while, I have been wrestling with the idea of creativity and imagination during listening activities with my kindergarten students. Although we often assume young children are naturally imaginative, my classroom experience suggested otherwise. When I implemented listening activities intended to encourage creative thinking, I found that kindergarteners rarely moved beyond literal responses.

While I was seeking divergent, or creative, listening responses, listening experiences that invite multiple interpretations rather than a single correct answer, I was not seeing evidence that my students were responding divergently. Divergent listening activities invite multiple possible interpretations and outcomes; they function much like open-ended questions with no single right or wrong answer. This was frustrating, especially because I had previously researched and implemented creative, divergent listening strategies in my fourth-grade music curriculum in 2023 with much success and found that:

“Because each listener creates something new and unique as they listen, music listening, then, should focus on divergent listening and exploring elements of music rather than merely identifying musical elements in a convergent manner” (Cobb, 2023, p. 7).

So why was I not having the same success with my younger students? What needed to change?

I realized the problem might lie in my assumptions about how imagination and creativity work in young children. Young children are imaginative and creative:

“Imagination is an essential aspect of childhood. Whether they turn a box into a fort or an old jacket into a superhero cape, kids use their imagination to transform the world around them. These hours of make-believe and playtime fun are crucial for healthy child development. It allows kids to develop creativity, problem-solving and other important life skills” (Miracle Recreation, n.d.).

At the same time, kindergarten students are still in Piaget’s preoperational stage:

“Children become much more skilled at pretend play during this stage of development, yet they continue to think very concretely about the world around them” (Cherry, 2025).

As I reflected on these two seemingly opposite truths, I wondered if imagination for kindergarteners might be rooted in the concrete. Perhaps I needed to offer a starting point for creative, divergent listening and let my students take it from there. Observing my classroom, this idea made sense: no young child turns nothing into something; they turn “a box into a fort or an old jacket into a superhero cape” (Miracle Recreation, n.d.).

This epiphany transformed how I teach listening with kindergarten students. Initially, I had students explore one element of music - such as steady beat or dynamics - per Ohio music standards, focusing on the concept of same and different in music. These activities were teacher-directed, with teacher-approved results, but my students weren’t making their own connections. I was making all the connections.

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The book The ABCs of My Feelings and Music by Scott and Stephanie Edgar, illustrated by Nancy Sosna Bohm, helped me realize a new approach. I could follow the classroom teachers’ letter of the week and simultaneously allow students to explore mood, steady beat, tempo, dynamics, instrumentation, and feelings. The concept of same and different remained, but students were able to construct their own understanding of musical elements through movement and class reflection. Instead of me telling the students what to listen for, I could let students tell me what they heard and understood.

Since implementing this approach, I have observed students making stronger connections between musical elements and the feelings each song evokes. We often predict what a song might sound like based on their understanding of the feeling word for the week. We move to the music in exploratory manners instead of simply “find the steady beat.” When we reflect on what we heard, we describe feelings as comfortable or uncomfortable, and even connect them to tonality: sad songs are slow and quiet with lower sounds, grumpy songs are loud and clashy, and smooth music inspires different movements than staccato music. Through these activities, divergence and creativity are woven in: each student reacts differently based on their prior musical experiences. Students are still exploring the same and different, but on a much richer level that helps them make a personal connection to the music they heard.

One poignant classroom moment involved playing a piano piece that made a paraprofessional cry. She explained the song reminded her of her mother, who also played piano. This became a beautiful example of a deep connection to feelings and music that included 16 little friends (and a concerned music teacher) who not only wanted to comfort her, but also quietly shared that moment of grief with her.

Offering these early divergent listening experiences provides a foundation for lifelong music appreciation. As I found in my research with older students:

“While the purpose and outcome of listening activities may change over time, music listening is a valuable activity at any age. It is easily understood that listening to music to make adjustments when performing is important, it should also be clear that learning to listen to music for appreciation and understanding is perhaps also important” (Cobb, 2023, p. 5-6).

For teachers struggling with creative music listening in elementary classrooms, incorporating a concrete yet divergent component to spark students’ creativity can make a meaningful difference. While creative, divergent listening requires careful preparation and practice, once students understand the process, they begin to engage independently, thoughtfully, and with genuine curiosity. Since introducing these changes to my listening activities, both my students and I now look forward to listening time, moving from the frustration of purely teacher-directed approaches to a shared space of imagination and creativity.

References Cherry, K. (2025). Piaget’s stages of cognitive development. Verywell Mind. https://www.verywellmind.com/piagets-stages-of-cognitive-development-2795457

Cobb, J. (2023). Active listening coupled with reflection in fourth grade general music (Unpublished master’s research). Bowling Green State University.

Miracle Recreation. (n.d.). The importance of imagination in child development. Miracle‑Recreation.com. https://www.miracle-recreation.com/blog/importance-of-imagination-in-child-development/

Jennifer Cobb is the general music teacher at Archbold Area Schools located in NW Ohio. Her research is centered around active listening, reflection through listening logs, and developing musical identity through the use of divergent questions. Mrs. Cobb is passionate about scaffolding music experiences for young musicians that set them up for musical success. She holds a Master of Music degree from Bowling Green State University.

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