Teachers and parents know about the value of storytelling and shared reading with young children. Do you know how to use music to make these stories more engaging and memorable for the under 5’s? In this blog we have some ideas for you to try and information about a training workshop for you to attend to learn more and gain access to resources to trial.
Attend our training workshop:
Join Boogie Mites Tutor Liv McLennan and storyteller Rohini Vij to learn more and to cover songs and stories that focus on supporting Mathematical thinking, encouraging a love of stories, poems, and music in children under the age of 5 through interactive musical story time. For more information on our workshop visit the Boogie Mites website below:
https://www.boogiemites.co.uk/shop/enlivening-stories-with-music/
Do you know children who find it challenging to sit still at storytime?
Listening at storytime is something that some children find easier than others. Childcare professionals have lots of tricks for engaging fidgety children, but do you use music to enliven storytime? Incorporating music and movement into storytime not only helps hold their attention, but will also contribute to many other areas of development.
Neuroscience tells us that music is a whole brain activity, boosting many areas of development, it also shows us how active music making develops neural pathways that support social cohesion and bonding for those taking part.
We asked our partners in India to describe how Boogie Mites music has enriched the story sessions for their early years family groups. This is what founder and expert storyteller Rohini Vij told us:
“I have always believed in the immense power of stories and music in the classroom. As a story educator, I am always looking for new and exciting ways to engage young learners. I usually start a lesson with a warm-up activity, this could be a game, a breathing exercise, fun facts or a song. This initial onboarding activity ensures that the students are hooked at the outset. This mostly works for children above six years of age. However, for children in the early years it’s musical engagement at the beginning of a lesson that alone captures their attention.
When we started NutSpace in 2014, we were using popular rhymes that we grew up listening to. Though they were a good start to the lesson, there was always something amiss. I was looking for something fresh and catchy and something that could align with my lesson goals. NutSpace uses stories at the core of a lesson to build life skills in children.
When I discovered music by Boogie Mites, a few years ago, I knew I had to integrate it into my lessons. These songs were not the usual rhymes, they were music stories, the missing ingredient in my lesson! Before long, the storytelling class for toddlers turned into a music stories lesson. We now start all our lessons with an active body movement and music routine where children use a variety of props as they move and shake along with peppy beats and catchy words. The rhyme and rhythm quality and rich vocabulary along with an active body movement routine fosters early language development, numeracy skills, fine and gross motor control, imagination and general awareness, among others.
The usual format of a NutSpace early years class has about 30 minutes of musical engagement, 10 minutes of storytime and 20 minutes of sensory activities.
The children and parents of NutSpace are hooked on Boogie Mites!”
Whether children are developing typically or not, including music-making into literacy strategies increases engagement and provides many other benefits for all children.
You can find out more about NutSpace by watching the video below or by heading to their website: https://nutspace.in/
Making storytime engaging for young children with sounds and music
Plan storytime to include use of body and junk percussion sounds and actions using props/instruments made from recycled materials. This will extend the attention span for young children and therefore extend the opportunity for learning from the activities and listening to the story. Listening and attention are key school ready skills.
Ideas for interactive sound and action stories.
Using junk percussion to enliven your storytelling!
What you need – ‘rubbish’: a cardboard box, plastic bag, paper, tubes, food packaging, foil… look for anything that would make an interesting sound. Parents could perhaps make this a rubbish treasure hunt, raiding the recycling bin, exploring the sounds that different rubbish can make.
What to do – Empty all the rubbish collected onto the floor. Let the children explore it – some may mimic sounds, use it for role play, others may start folding, stacking or packing things away. See how they interact with it. Give them wooden spoons as beaters to tap the different materials.
Pick a favourite song with the children and encourage them to keep the beat with their rubbish. For example, I Hear Thunder using an upside-down shoebox and hitting it like a drum, with a drum roll for the thunder and light pitter-patter for the rain.
Now ask the children to describe the sounds they are making: loud, soft, scrunchy, scratchy, high, low etc. What animals do they sound like? Could crunchy paper be the sound of the sea or rustling leaves, mice or snakes in the grass? Once the children have explored the materials, introduce the junk percussion to your storytelling.
Telling the story – This may be done with a picture book or a book with written text and pictures. Look at the first picture, ask the children; ‘what’s going on in this picture?’, ‘what do you think that sounds like?’, ‘how can we make that sound with our rubbish?’
Is it a picture of a dinosaur? Maybe stomping noises on a box. Or a butterfly? Maybe rustling paper in the air for fluttering wings.
Ideas for introducing music to storytime
Get started with an action song to get the brain ready for a focused storytime. An action song can work as a brain gym to wake up the brain and tire the body ready for sitting and listening time.
Pick an action, rhyme or song that fits the story, sing it/act it out together and link it to the story.
Play a piece of music/song relevant to the theme and dance or role play.
End the storytime with an instrumental piece of music for quietly sitting or laying and listening to while reflecting on the story.
You could have a group Let’s Tap A Word (LTAW) session the following day and ask the children to think of words from the story to include in the song. You can talk them through the events of the story asking for them to pick favourite words. This will encourage them to use memory recall and also support their syllabic awareness, a key foundation for literacy.
You can download Boogie Mites LTAW song and video training by signing up here:
https://ex246.infusionsoft.com/app/form/lets-tapa-word
There is no right or wrong way that children can participate in these musical activities! The main aim is creative engagement: at which point they will be having fun problem solving and developing their communication and language skills through playing with sounds and communicating ideas through sounds and actions.
Attend our training workshop:
Join Boogie Mites Tutor Liv McLennan and storyteller Rohini Vij to learn more and to cover songs and stories that focus on supporting Mathematical thinking, encouraging a love of stories, poems, and music in children under the age of 5 through interactive musical story time. For more information on our workshop visit the Boogie Mites website below:
https://www.boogiemites.co.uk/shop/enlivening-stories-with-music/
Contact Sue to enquire further: [email protected]
