Music Program Sing and Play –  for 3-5 year old children

Description of the Music Program Sing and Play” 

The preschool music program Sing and Play is designed to support you leading warm, sociable group sessions where the children sing, move, dance, dramatise, improvise, create, listen and play instruments. Usually, one educator leads the group encouraging children and any other adults present to fully participate in the songs, music and their related activities.  A similar structure is behind every lesson so each time the group gets together the children become more powerful at predicting which activity will happen next, much to the surprise of the adults who aren’t usually so aware.

The songs are based on traditional melodies, many of them consisting of extremely simple tonal materials that are found in many cultures.  They offer the perfect basis for developing an appreciation of music in its cultural and aesthetic diversity.  The songs teach melodic shape, rhythm and timing, emotional expression and song structure.  They provide familiar, repetitive musical forms that are easy to remember.

Designed for children aged from three to five years, the music program Sing and Play offers four action-packed courses with songs, games, simple musical instruments, dramatic play, mimicry, movement, dance, relaxation and literature as focal points.

The songs, games and music develop

• social awareness and social conventions
• language and literature through song
• coordination, timing and rhythm
• emotional self-regulation
• tactile learning
• reasoning and mathematics
• musical concepts (rhythm, melody, tempo, style, expression, timbre and form)
• practical musical skills (listening, singing, playing instruments, moving to music, improvising)
• drama, dance and mimicry
• multicultural music appreciation
• relaxation and well-being
• visual learning

Within the music program Sing and Play there are over 170 songs.  Most of them are traditional to the English/European cultures with a smattering having been written to suit our purpose when a traditional song could not be found e.g. a helicopter song.  There are five songs in Languages other than English.  There is also a wide selection of well-known nursery rhymes and some stimulating rhymes that are less well-aired.  We include time-honoured nursery rhymes and songs believing that they are toys for the mind – indestructible, enduring cultural icons shared with adults and peers, siblings and cousins.  The expressiveness of the English language is encapsulated in its nursery rhymes.  They are significant too as cultural fragments that bind societies through shared meanings.

The program is presented as four courses:

1. Singing All Day Long
2. Singing in My Heart
3. Singing Just for Fun
4. Singing to the Sky

Inside the Music Program Sing and Play

Each course contains Educator’s Notes, five sets of MP3s and lyric charts showing the lyrics to all the songs.  A course can be used over a period of ten or more weeks.

There are five lesson plans called parts per course.  The intention is that each part is repeated at least once (if you choose to use it as we do for a ten-week period).

The five parts have topical titles such as ‘Cooks in the Kitchen’ or ‘Over the Sea’ allowing the grouping of songs around a rich driving concept to aid concentration and support language development.  The content has direct appeal to the children, because it is within their range of experiences either directly or vicariously through books and other media.

Each part can be presented as a 45 minute session once a week or divided into smaller chunks and used daily.

The program is flexible but it also has a strong developmental core to it based on the recurring activities.  Ten developmental activities are presented in each part under headings such as ‘Body Percussion’, ‘Rhythm Instruments’ or ‘Games and Dances’.

Each of the five parts shows:

• the part number and name e.g. Part 1 – Beautiful Farm
• activity heading: Social Conventions; Body Percussion; Fingers; Memory; Rhythm Instruments; Melody and Harmony Instruments; Drama and Movement; Games and Dances; Music Appreciation Suggestions; Story Songs with Visual Media
• learning outcomes for musical concepts: rhythm, melody, tempo, style, expression, timbre and form
• a rationale or “Why?” section giving the writer’s reason for choosing the piece as well as extra historical or cultural notes
• a suggestion for staying alert to opportunities for Language and Speech Development by mining the lyrics for repetition, rhythm, rhyme, alliteration, onomatopoeia
• a suggested way to introduce the activities and songs
• the lyrics
• a simple score

Within the whole Music Program Sing and Play  there are 20 parts and over 170 songs.  The notes are laid-out in an easy to read format with a lesson overview in the front.  Each course is colour-coded for ease of differentiation.

All of the song accompaniments and vocal tracks are provided as MP3s.

All of the song lyrics are provided as lyric charts. Songs that are repeated – Hello Song, Pack Away Song, Goodbye Song and the ‘horse-riding song’ – are provided once.  They appear in the lyric charts for the first part but also pertain to the following four parts in each course.

This description is based on Sing and Play 1: Singing All Day Long Educator’s Book. Find out more about how to buy the complete preschool music program Sing and Play for children aged one to five published by Musical Child – Early Learning through Music.