Children naturally enjoy music, and want to move, dance, vocalise and create sounds in whichever way they can to reflect their mood.

There are different aspects of musicality that you can explore with your child:

Movement

When children take part in music and movement activities, they can release lots of energy as they have fun being creative and dancing around.  It also helps children to develop their gross and fine motor skills, express their emotions, learn how to share space, and improve their balance and co-ordination as they explore moving their body.

Great songs to try are Shake your sillies out and I can move my body like anything or you could play a game like musical statues.

Play Sounds

When children make sounds through play, they are developing early instrumental skills.  They are first learning what the object is and then what they can do with it.  As children experiment, they are building an understanding of how best to make the sound i.e shake maracas, use a beater to play a triangle, scrape or beat a woodblock, tap or bang drums with their hands.

Encouraging your child to explore what they can do with instruments is so beneficial for their development.  It builds fine and gross motor skills, supports sensory development, enhances hand-eye co-ordination and helps your child to develop patience and perseverance.

You may have some instruments at home already or you could make your own such as lollipop stick harmonicas or straw pan flutes.  We also included ideas in the home learning booklet in your family fun bag.

Listen

Listening is not just about hearing, it is also about being able to tune-in to sounds in the environment and sounds that are spoken.  It can be described as an active process where we make sense and respond to what we hear.  As children develop their listening skills, they are learning to take in information, respond to instructions and share ideas and thoughts.

You could try playing some listening games with your child, such as Simon Says, or online from the BBC website – https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/eyfs-listening-skills/zbc4y9q

Create

Having the opportunity to be creative with music enables children to think about how sounds are made and how they can put these sounds together to compose their own rhythms.  Children need to be able to try out their own ideas and express themselves to nurture this creative process.

Here are some ideas to encourage your child:

Chrome Music Lab – Song Maker

Body rhythm using syllables: Start by thinking of 2 items that you want to use, for example apple and banana

Choose which body parts you want to use to beat out the syllables, you might clap hands twice for a-pple or stamp three times for ba-na-na

Put this rhythm together and then repeat: CLAP, CLAP, STAMP, STAMP, STAMP, CLAP, CLAP, STAMP, STAMP, STAMP

Say the syllables as you do the body rhythm: a-pple, ba-na-na, a-pple, ba-na-na

Sing

Singing with your child helps promote their language and literacy development.  Songs can be very motivating for children, using simple, repetitive language to encourage engagement as they learn new things such as phonological awareness and vocabulary. Children’s songs also include concepts such as counting, body parts recognition, animals and following directions, and these really help your child to understand experiences, words, emotions, and much more.

Spend some time singing with your child everyday.  Here are some song suggestions and ways that you can integrate activities to enhance the experience for your child:

Favourites: Incy Wincy Spider; Wheels on the Bus; Row, Row, Row your Boat

Body parts: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes; If You’re Happy and You Know It; Tommy Thumb

Animals: Old McDonald; I Went to Visit a Zoo One Day; There was an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly

Counting: 5 Little Monkeys; Once I Caught a Fish Alive; 5 Little Speckled Frogs

Other Ideas

• Try pausing before the last word in a line and see if your child finishes it.  This is building skills such as attention, memory, language and rhyming.
• Add extra verses or change some of the details in the song.  This encourages your child to be creative and flexible, whilst supporting vocabulary development.
• Make a mistake whilst singing and see if your child notices and can fix it.  This helps improve attention and listening skills.
• Adapt a song to include holiday and seasonal topics, for example  Santa on the Sleigh Goes Ho, Ho, Ho.
• Make up your own songs to develop your child’s understanding and motor movements.

Remember to share your ideas in your Google Classroom or on Twitter @GlenwoodFC  #Glenwoodlearningathome

Helicopter Stories is a simple approach based on the work of Vivian Gussin Paley. It involves acting as a scribe by writing down a child’s story word for word as they are saying it. After it has been written the time is then taken to act it out. In the nursery we tend to do this with a bigger group. However, they can be done at home with only one child. When we are in nursery it is usually an A5 size of paper that is used. However, as you are at home you can choose whatever size of paper you want. It might be nice to use a notebook and keep them all together if you choose to do it more than once.

Here are some helpful tips for doing Helicopter Stories at home.

Listening to your child’s story.

There are no rules to how long their story must be. Their stories can range from just one word to a few short sentences, sometimes they can even write a list. For a child to become a confident storyteller they must be allowed to tell their stories the way they want, without anyone interfering or interrupting them. This will help them to trust that what is being written and acted out are their own words.

Try not to interrupt

Naturally when we are reading stories to children or if a child is telling us a story, we would ask questions. Such as how big was the elephant? When the child is talking try not to ask them questions or influence their story in any way. Just listen to them so that you can hear everything that is being said and are able to write every word down. Perhaps after the child has told their story and acted it out, you could then ask them to scribe for you while you tell them a story. It doesn’t matter if they can’t write the words properly, as when you act it out you will both remember what was said.

Make a stage

Normally a stage for Helicopter Stories will be marked out using masking tape . Remember there are no rules at home so you can use the hallway, stairs, living room… Ask your child to decide where they want their stage to be and they can make their own rules up. Your acting area can be whatever and wherever you want it to be.

And Finally, Act It Out

When you begin to act out the stories let your child be in charge. It is their story so they will show you exactly how they want it to be acted out. Let your child decide what character they want to be and tell you what character you are going to be.

This is a great activity to get the whole family involved. If there are only two of you, each of you can be more than one character. Just as the child can’t do anything wrong in this activity neither can you. Just play, try not to take over, and release your inner child!

Find out more about Helicopter Stories on their website here.

Most importantly have fun! You might like to share your stories with us on Twitter @GlenwoodFC  #Glenwoodlearningathome