Musical activities should be a vibrant part of every Early Learner’s life. Musicbuds’ material has been carefully created and crafted to support specific educational values:

Music should be accessible to all: music is a universal means of communication – an inviting language that connects and engages all, regardless of gender, culture, language or circumstance. That is why it is so important for care-givers to share in the highest-quality of music-making in the early stages of life.

Music enhances brain development: Recent research has demonstrated that babies respond to sound even from within the womb, by becoming more active, and by mouthing and exercising the tongue. Children are therefore able to engage meaningfully in musical activities from birth. Taking speech-development as an example, music and speech have a number of shared processing systems in the brain, such as sound, sequencing, and rhythm. Because of this, music contributes to strengthening a child’s perception of language. It plays a vital role in laying the foundations for a child’s speech-development, which later feeds into their ability to read and write.

Music promotes physical development: Because music often evokes movement, it also plays an integral part in a child’s physical development. Responding to music, and allowing children to develop a range of ways of moving and negotiating space, is a vital part of their progression.

Music is a social activity: Singing and making music is a creative process allowing children the opportunity to express their feelings through sounds and rhythms. Music is a sociable activity involving family, friends and the wider community. It brings people together with a joint purpose. Children participating in musical activities learn to share, co-operate and take turns. For that sense of working together and belonging, music is the perfect remedy. One of the most rewarding aspects of our roles was watching our little Musicbuds bloom throughout our sessions as they developed, through musical interactions, many of the skills needed to become effective learners. This sense of magic continues now as Clare trains, prepares and provides teachers and carers with the skills and confidence they need to to deliver high-quality sessions themselves.

Of course! It’s not the quality of singing that is important here. Lovely if you have a great voice, but if, like the rest of us, you struggle a bit with projection and purity, don’t worry at all. It’s more about the quality of your delivery. If the children see and hear that you are engaged and enjoying the content, then their perception of their learning experience is usually positive too. It is always a good idea to solidly practise and rehearse the songs and activities that you are going to present to your group, and this includes adding dramatic inflections to the intonation of your voice when necessary. If you are really unconfident, you can always use the vocal backing track on the CD, although there is nothing to beat your own ‘live’ performance!

Each pack has enough material to cover at least one term’s teaching. To begin with, we would mark the beginning and end of each session with a greeting and goodbye song, and then add two or three varied songs into the body of the session. For example, after singing a welcoming song, a ‘seated’, rhythmical song, such as ‘Oh Pizza!’, where the children have to add their ingredients to a pizza base works well. You could follow this by a transition song to move the group from sitting to standing; the ‘La la song’ works well for this as once the children become familiar with the song (which doesn’t take long at all!) they can suggest their own improvised movements during the verses. An active song, ‘Walk around the room’ always goes down well, before encouraging the children to return to a seated position in order to play with some instruments. Then end by perhaps singing to the children that ‘It’s time to go’. Once this order has become familiar (after a couple of sessions) you could add one or two new songs and remove a couple of familiar ones, to provide variety whilst maintaining some security of routine. Eventually, over the course of the term, you will find that you can fit more songs into the time available, so that you end up managing all 12 songs in a 30 - 45 minute session. However, be warned - there are some songs that the children love so much, you could spend the entire lesson on just one song!

These resources are designed to be child-centred and learner-focussed. They primarily use a scaffolding approach as this accommodates both individual learning styles and group activity. As a result, the adult has to be reflective and highly sensitive to each child’s response to the music in ‘real’ time, and to accept that these responses may vary from session to session. Initially, as the children experience the musical activities, they will be facilitated by the teacher. However, as the children become more familiar with the material, so the sessions, and the songs within them, evolve into creative experiences of their own. In this way, the children get to explore their responses to musical stimuli in a variety of ways and through a variety of mediums. It is wonderful to watch the children grow in confidence as they take ownership of their ‘own’ songs!

Absolutely! It is better to provide the children with live music wherever possible. It is also much easier to respond to the children’s creativity when accompanying the activities oneself. However, in today’s educational climate, it is often the case that the music teacher, or Early Years’ specialist, is overstretched and under-resourced. In those cases, it may be useful to have a recording to hand to support the teaching. It is also a good way to learn the songs in advance of teaching them, if one is not well-skilled musically. Furthermore, we find that using a variety of delivery-techniques within the session, so some live accompaniment, some unaccompanied songs, and some recorded backings work well in terms of organisation and classroom management aspects.