We’ve been zooming along this May at Bangers & Smash with a series of online music sessions on the theme of Gardens & Growing!
Children have enjoyed talking about the plants they’d like to grow – from tomatoes and rose bushes to dandelions and bamboo!
Bangers & Smash co-founder, Kitty Pidduck, has continued to host weekly Zoom sessions for:
children of key workers still attending nursery
childcare settings providing support for families unable to attend
groups of families and friends
Sessions have had anything from one to 32 families logging in and Kitty has had a fab time meeting mums, dads and carers, grannies and grandpas, brothers and sisters and even family pets :)
Gardens & Growing
With day after day of sunshine and blue skies, it’s been a great month for getting out in the garden!
Children, nursery staff and families have enjoyed:
meeting Gardening Bunny and looking at his bucket, trowel and tiny flowerpot
singing and moving to:
Push Little Seed
The Parts Of Trees
joining in with actions to Raffi’s Everything Grows
looking at:
a bean growing in a jam jar
a beanstalk growing in a flowerpot
watering the beanstalk and making a growing sound (rising ooh)
shaking packets of mustard seeds and pea seeds and comparing the sounds
planting the mustard seeds in a ramekin with some damp kitchen roll
looking at and listening to:
small, medium and large rainsticks
shakers made out of recycled bottle tops
singing and playing shakers and bells to:
Rain, Rain, Go Away
It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
Incey, Wincey Spider
I Hear Thunder
You Are My Sunshine
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
picking a rose out of a basket with a daisy on it and dancing to Ring A Ring O’ Roses
showing Kitty flowers and plants from their own homes and nurseries
In one lovely interaction, a little boy put a leaf on his head and Kitty used the opportunity to create a new song, I’m The King of The Garden, in which children take turns to (i) choose something to plant and (ii) tap its name on sticks from the garden.
Kitty has made a video of some of this month’s songs and activities so that parents and staff can enjoy them again with the children. There’s also information on next month’s sessions so check it out below!
Under the Willow
Under the Willow’s Africa Project Celebration took place on 6 May.
Parents, carers and children sang, played and listened to songs from across Africa as they took part in a virtual journey with the San bush people.
Families then joined in with Bangers & Smash’s Gardens & Growing theme for the rest of May.
The San people’s territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. Image courtesy of Carolyn’s Travel Stories
Online music sessions with Bangers & Smash
If you’d like to join one of our online music sessions, please visit the Bangers & Smash shop to book your place.
If you’re a parent, carer, childcare provider or arts setting and would like to discuss setting up one or more bespoke online music sessions, please get in touch here.