On Saturday I presented a workshop, “Music and Movement Activities from Around the World,” at the “Kenyon at Kean” Conference in Union, NJ. What a terrific experience! I presented to two groups, and both groups were filled with energetic, fun, creative child care professionals who came ready to move to music! Working with teachers of […]
Tag Archives: early childhood music
“Little Snowflake” by Super Simple Learning available on iTunes This song, by Super Simple Learning, is a lovely, peaceful song. It’s lilting and a bit slow, and the words and tune are repetitive and predictable (of course, these are good things in the world of early childhood). It’s sung by a child, which I usually […]
Little Wolf’s Song by Britta Teckentrup A few weeks ago, when we were making totally different animal noises with a different story, one little boy asked me if they could howl. Of course I said yes and we had fun howling for no reason (do you need a reason to howl?), but it reminded me […]
Jingle-Jingle by Nicola Smee Last week I shared one of my favorite “non- denominational” holiday picture books, “Polar Bear Night.” This one is quite different in tone, but equally lovable. The animals in “Jingle-Jingle” (the same crew featured in her earlier story, “Clip-Clop”) are wearing Santa hats, but there’s no mention of Christmas or any […]
(This piece appeared in slightly different form in my book “Teaching Creativity.”) As teachers, we often assume that praise will boost children’s self-esteem and confidence. And for encouraging appropriate behavior, or reinforcing tasks like learning to tie shoes, praise can be a helpful teaching tool. But when it comes to developing children’s creativity, praise can […]
“Polar Bear Night” by Lauren Thompson If you’re looking for a picture book and music experience to express the joy and peace of the holiday season, “Polar Bear Night” will delight your students with its starry winter magic. This is one of my all-time favorite children’s books, although it was written fairly recently, by Lauren […]
A very insightful five-year-old girl named Dina once taught me a very important lesson. I was teaching her class a song I’d written, one of those songs where the children were supposed to supply the rhyming words at the ends of silly phrases – like “Today when I put on my hat, it started […]
“The way to have good ideas is to have lots of ideas, and throw away the bad ones.” Linus Pauling Linus Pauling, one of the only two people in history to win two Nobel Prizes (the […]
“Meow Hou Hou” from the CD “Salsa for Kittens and Puppies” by Baby Loves Salsa available on iTunes I still remember when I first heard this delightful song – I was so excited! It’s not every day that I come across a song that not only is easy for young children to sing (basically all […]
“All for Pie, Pie for All” by David Martin Am I the only one whose first thought about Thanksgiving coming up is “Pie! Yessss!” I like the Thanksgiving Day parade, and relatives coming over is good, but I’m a vegetarian, so I’m not into turkey. Nope, pie is #1 on the list, folllowed by sweet […]
Music (and Science) For Young Children 