Children’s musical activity in free play in the kindergarten occurs spontaneously and is internally motivated. Sometimes, a stimulus left by the kindergarten teacher can be a reason for emergent musical action, encouraging children’s spontaneous participation and experimentation (Edwards et al., 2011). In free play, children, as they improvise or interact with one another and they express their interests, ideas, experiences, and feelings through sounds or words (Dogani, 2024). The present research focused on preschool children’s interests as they emerge spontaneously in their free musical play in the classroom, due to the existence of a musical instrument as a stimulus. The children’s experience was captured mainly through non-participatory observation that followed their creative activity, at moments when they chose to spontaneously engage in musical play (Cohen et al., 2018). The observation was reinforced with descriptive field notes and video recordings. The musical artefacts created by the children were collected, while individual discussions were held in the form of interviews, with open-ended questions regarding the experience and content of the musical play. The thematic analysis that followed was based on a narrative description of the critical events that emerged from the observation. The analysis highlighted children’s creativity in integrating their interests into the musical play. They explored ways of producing sound with variations in speed, duration, individually or with other children. They sought original and playful forms of communication and connection between them, improvising with music and movement. They created original games by integrating the musical instrument/stimulus into them. The analysis showed that free musical play has a dual and pivotal importance for the child. It functions as the means and the goal at the same time. Within it, the child creates music, controlling the choices and its development, while the flow of musical expression evolves effortlessly, because it happens within play. The importance of the educators’ observation of the child’s spontaneous musical creations developed in play is underlined in order to distinguish and strengthen them.

• Curricula and critical approaches
• Meaningful musical experiences

Konstantina Dogani is an Associate Professor at the School of Early Childhood Education (SEcEd), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. She has taught for many years in undergraduate and postgraduate programs at universities in Greece and abroad, such as the University of the Aegean, the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, the University of Luneburg in Germany, and the University of Exeter in England. She studied preschool education at the Department of Early Childhood Education, NKUA, and holds a Piano degree from the Model Experimental Conservatory of Athens. She holds a PhD from the University of Exeter in England and a Master in Music Pedagogy, the University of Reading in England. She has worked as a preschool teacher and music educator in public and private education. She is the author of “Music in Early Childhood Education: Child-Teacher Interaction” (Gutenberg Publishing House) and writes articles in international and Greek journals. Her research interests and teaching focus on exploring a teacher pedagogy that encourages children's musical creativity in the classroom through composition and improvisation activities.