Anyone who has worked with me will tell you that I believe strongly in the benefits of performance for young children. When done effectively it motivates, engages and excites children over many weeks and increases the energy in the classroom. It teaches them the value of perseverance and practice. It develops their ability to work […]
School Readiness Through Music: #4
School readiness is a challenging area in education, particularly for less advantaged children who have not had the opportunity to attend preschool. This podcast episode is all about one teacher’s experience of running an 8-week music program specifically to help kids get ready for Kinder. You can listen to it above, listen to it on […]
Back to School: Hello, Hello Icebreaker and Song
Getting to know each other, or getting reacquainted, is a big part of going back to school. This simple icebreaker activity and song will smash that ice and warm up the classroom in no time! No diva singing expertise necessary! Feeling comfortable in the classroom There are such a variety of personalities in any classroom […]
Australian Back to School Free eBook
Going back to school is a crazy-busy time, as well as being crazy-hot at the moment! So some Aussie teachers got together to make things just a little easier. If you want to find free activities you can use in your classroom (Foundation-6), plus tips and ideas that line up with the Australian curriculum, visit […]
10 Activities and You Tube Songs to Explore Emotions
Helping little ones understand their own feelings and the emotions of others takes time and consistency. Effort spent in this area helps children learn tactics to control their own behaviours which is a great help to their social development. I have listed here over 10 activities and 10 You Tube songs you might like to […]
Halloween Spooky Sounds Poster
It’s October and that means…. HALLOWEEN! I will admit that being Australian meant I was quite oblivious to the enormity of Halloween until I moved overseas and was ‘enlightened’. After 20 years abroad working in international schools in Asia and watching the amazing lengths Americans (and others) went to in celebrating this event I admit […]
Talking about Feelings with Five Little Ducks
Learning to recognise and understand feelings is an important skill to develop in early childhood as anyone living or working with little ones will know! We want to encourage children to: Recognise and label their own emotions Learn how to manage their feelings productively Understand that other children and adults have feelings too Activities that can […]
Creating Night Noises: Virtual Book Club for Kids
I love sharing Mem Fox books with my students and for this hands-on, experimental activity we used her book Night Noises. In this story Lily Laceby and her dog, Butch Aggie, are resting at home by the fire on a cold, stormy evening. A series of noises from outside have Butch Aggie worried but Lily […]
Why I Love my Sound Box for Early Learners
When I started teaching music in my early childhood classes, one of my first projects was to create a Sound Box… a box full of sounds. It sits innocuously in one corner of my room until it’s ‘play’ time or ‘let’s experiment’ time and then it springs to life: loud sounds, soft sounds, whirry, shaky, […]