Good afternoon to all our Pre-Kindy families. We have had a very unusual day today weather wise – ranging from warm and sunny through to a big storm. This inspired some of our group time song choices! We sang “Its raining its pouring”, “I can sing a rainbow”, “Incey wincey spider”, “I hear thunder” and “Rain, rain go away”.
By popular request, we also played some games again that we learnt yesterday, including:
- Clapping our legs and hands with a friend to establish a rhythm, whilst singing the words to the song “Miss Mary Mack”.
- Joining hands and walking around clockwise in a circle, pretending to be mice whilst a cat lies sleeping in the middle. We repeated a chant/rhyme over and over as we did this. Finally, once the “cat” wakes up, if anyone is still moving, they are caught by the cat.
The benefits of music and movement to children is enormous, and includes:
– Development of social skills by playing co‐operative musical games
– Giving children a chance to recognise that music and dance can express moods and different feelings in an appropriate social way
– Increasing children’s awareness of different movements
– Improving children’s balance, co‐ordination and rhythm through dancing and other movement activities
– Helping to develop children’s fine motor skills (for example, learning finger plays like those in “Incey wincey spider”)
– Developing children’s creativity and imagination by responding to music through movement
– Refining children’s listening skills by noticing changes in rhythm, beat or tempo (clapping fast or slow in “Miss Mary Mack”).
Music and movement is linked to the Early years Learning Framework in the following ways:
1.2 – Children develop their emerging autonomy, inter – dependence, resilience and sense of agency.
2.2 – Children respond to diversity with respect.
3.1 ‐ Children become strong in their social and emotional wellbeing.
4.3 ‐ Children transfer and adapt what they learned from one context to another.
5.3 – Children collaborate with others, express ideas and make meaning using a range of media and communication technologies.
In terms of other activities, today the children chose to play with:
- Playdough (Indi made lots of holes in her flattened dough with thin wiggly sticks, whilst Kaylee made a flat pizza)
- Making meals in the kitchen (Chi was a great chef for her friends Ivy, Marlie and Zander)
- Insects, bugs and large magnifying glasses (Ollie, Lily, Maia, Jaxon, Ellie and Asher really enjoyed looking at the bugs up close with the aide of their magnifying glasses. Asher found two scorpions that had a big “fight”)
Until tomorrow everyone, enjoy your evening, and spending time with your families. Much love, Miss Donna and Miss Olivia xxx
