Winter Wonderland with Bangers & Smash

It’s been a busy run-up to Christmas at Bangers & Smash with shows, concerts and events to prepare for and projects to bring to a close!

Thanks to Crystal Nurseries for this festive wall art!

Kitty continued to run music sessions at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, Under the Willow, School Outdoors Dulwich, Crystal Nurseries and Purple Jay Herne Hill Dulwich, as well as presenting Carols in the Wildlife Garden – with Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen – at the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

Winter Wonderland

Nurseries began rehearsals for their Christmas shows and concerts in November, ready to perform them for parents and carers in December.

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich

Staff and children at Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich sang and danced to Christmas songs, including:

• I’m A Little Snowman

• Here We Go Round The Christmas Tree

• Jingle Bells

• Rockin’ Robin

• When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney

• Mary’s Boy Child

Under the Willow also hosted performances by babies, toddlers and preschoolers for parents and carers, including a visit from Santa!

Santa came to Under the Willow!

Crystal Nurseries

Crystal Nurseries hosted performances of Kitty’s musical play, Winter Wonderland, in all three nurseries.

Staff and children dressed up as snowmen, reindeer, Santas, robins and Christmas puddings to tell the story of two children on Christmas morning.

They also sang songs celebrating the Nativity, including a magical fairy-light-lit rendition of Silent Night.

Purple Jay Herne Hill Dulwich

Staff and children at Purple Jay Herne Hill Dulwich made a Christmas video for parents and carers, featuring songs and dances performed in front of a festive backdrop.

Babies played bells and waved homemade stars; toddlers performed a circle dance and preschoolers remembered all the words and actions to Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer!

A festive backdrop

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

And finally, Kitty and Sarah hosted their annual Carols in the Wildlife Garden event on Saturday 9 December.

Families and local people gathered to sing festive songs, make Christmas wreaths with artists, Hannah Littlejones and Berengere Ducoms, and share mulled drinks & mince pies in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

It’s always lovely to hear Sarah’s accordion!

Woolly hats at the ready

Berengere with her Christmas wreath

Hannah making popcorn garlands

Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash!

We’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash – we look forward to seeing you in 2024!

Celebrating Harvest and Black History Month with Bangers & Smash

This Autumn, we’ve been celebrating Harvest and Black History Month at Bangers & Smash!

Thanks to Purple Jay for these gorgeous Hallowe’en pumpkins!

In August and September, Kitty ran harvest-themed music sessions at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, Under the Willow, School Outdoors Dulwich and Crystal Nurseries, as well as welcoming new nursery, Purple Jay (formerly Mother Goose Greendale) on board.

She also presented two family singing and junk-instrument-making events – Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Harvest Celebration – at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses in Herne Hill.

Regular Bangers & Smash nurseries

Children and staff enjoyed:

• looking at a cartoon picture of a farm and singing Old Macdonald Had A Farm

• adding in a tractor, plough and combine harvester

• pretending to drive a tractor and plough – complete with sounds and actions

• looking at a picture of some farmers and identifying the fruits and vegetables they are holding

• talking about cereal crops and looking at pictures of wheat, oats and barley

• singing and dancing to Oats And Beans And Barley Grow

• stroking a kidney bean and finding words to describe it:

  • smooth

  • hard

  • brown

  • red

  • shiny

• taking it in turns to shake a kidney bean shaker and jump up and down to Jumping Bean

• singing The Farmer Ploughs His Meadow and taking it in turns to be a farmer planting, watering, harvesting and cooking his kidney beans

• singing and dancing to Nzama, Nzama – a Malawian song about beans cooking in a pot

• telling the story of a farmer ploughing his field and harvesting his corn through sounds and actions

• talking about scarecrows and singing Dingle, Dangle Scarecrow

• singing and moving to Big Red Combine Harvester (the children absolutely loved this song and are still singing it now!)

Black History Month

Moving into October, Kitty asked staff of African and Caribbean heritage if they would like to share songs and stories in celebration of Black History Month.

Huge thanks to Nkechi, Abina, Abi, Gay-Ann, Malone, Kemi, Mahado, Trishana, Carol, Peaches, Edna and Ade for the following:

• Dis Long Time Gal, Linstead Market and Brown Girl In The Ring from Jamaica

• We Ki O Mo, Bata Mia Dun Koko Ka and Labe Igi Orombo from Nigeria (in the Yoruba language)

• O Kereke and Onye Gabwe Wu Iya from Nigeria (in the Igbo language)

• Waka Waka (This Time For Africa) by Shakira

Check out Kitty and some of the teachers at Young & Smart Nursery after an absolutely riotous whole school Black History Month celebration (and thanks to Marie for bringing Kitty this fabulous dress from Cote D’Ivoire)!

Kitty Pidduck presents…

Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses

Kitty presented sold out family singing and junk-instrument-making events, Teddy Bears’ Picnic and Harvest Celebration, at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses on 30 August and 23 October.

TEDDY BEARS’ PICNIC

With snacks foraged from BPCG’s Edible Garden and lots of picnic-themed songs and activities, this family music and craft session celebrated picnics, teddies and outdoor fun!

Foraging for picnic snacks

Making a Teddy Bear drum

HARVEST CELEBRATION

As well as singing and dancing to songs about ploughing, planting and growing, children collected leaves, flowers, berries and seed pods and used them to make scarecrow selfies and junk shakers.

Scarecrow selfie

Junk shaker

CAROLS IN THE WILDLIFE GARDEN

And finally, Kitty and Sarah will present a Christmas wreath-making and singing session, Carols in the Wildlife Garden, for families and members of the local community at Mother Goose Wildlife Garden on Saturday 9 December.

Hosted by artist, Hannah Littlejones, this free event is open to everyone so do come along and bring your little ones!

Going on a Picnic with Bangers & Smash

This Summer, we’ve had a brilliant time singing about picnics at Bangers & Smash!

‘If you go down to the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise...’

Kitty ran picnic-themed music sessions at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, Mother Goose Greendale, Crystal Nurseries, Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich.

She also presented a family singing and junk-instrument-making event, Music in the Wildlife Garden, with Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen, in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

Regular Bangers & Smash nurseries

Children and staff enjoyed:

• looking at pictures of picnic food and singing their own version of Do You Like?

• pretending to bake biscuits while singing Biscuits in the Oven by Canadian children’s songwriter, Raffi

• singing and patting their knees to Raffi’s Going On A Picnic

• stamping their feet to Feet, Feet, Feet, Feet

• singing and making up actions to Let’s All Go Walking (big thanks to Shirley Stump for introducing me to this song!)

• passing different fruits around the circle and thinking about different ways to describe them:

  • crunchy pineapple

  • juicy watermelon

• performing a rhyme with actions, Banana, Banana

• listening and singing along to Fruit Salad by The Wiggles

• playing along on bamboo claves to a poem about making a fruit salad, Chop, Chop, Choppity Chop

• looking at pictures of fruits & nuts and playing along on claves to Bangers & Smash original, The Fruit & Nut Train

• dancing to Oh, Banana and Peanut Vendor by the Kew Park Mento Band

• keeping a steady pulse on claves while singing Do You Know The Muffin Man?

• performing the nursery rhyme, Round And Round The Garden

• singing songs about teddy bears, including:

  • I Know A Teddy Bear

  • Ha, Ha, Thisaway

  • Teddy Bear Hug by Raffi

• taking two teddy bears for a walk in the woods while listening to The Teddy Bears’ Picnic

• singing and playing bells to You Are My Sunshine

Celebrating the end of term

Mother Goose Greendale and Crystal Nurseries celebrated the end of term with special sessions featuring their favourite songs and activities and Kitty was even invited to join in with snack time afterwards!

Meanwhile, Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich brought their termly projects to a close with Project Celebrations for parents and carers on Wednesday 12 July.

Staff and children sat round picnic blankets to present picnic-themed songs and activities. School Outdoors Dulwich performed together with their families as one big group while Under the Willow split into three smaller groups – babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

Check out School Outdoors Dulwich’s amazing clay picnic food!

Kitty Pidduck presents…

Music in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty and Sarah presented their annual Music in the Wildlife Garden event on Saturday 29 April.

As well as singing and junk-instrument-making, guests enjoyed pond-dipping and watery art activities courtesy of artist and Mother Goose Wildlife Garden host, Hannah Littlejones.

Teddy Bears’ Picnic

And finally, Kitty will be presenting two sessions at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses on Wednesday 30 August.

With snacks foraged from BPCG’s very own Edible Garden and lots of picnic-themed songs and activities, these family music and craft sessions will celebrate picnics, teddies and outdoor fun!

It would be great if you could come along so please do check out BPCG’s event listings at:

• Teddy Bears’ Picnic (11am-12.30pm)

• Teddy Bears’ Picnic (1.30-3pm)

Have a fantastic Summer and see you in September!

The Sounds of Water with Bangers & Smash

This Spring, we’ve had a ‘splashing’ time learning about water at Bangers & Smash!

Kitty ran water-themed music sessions at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, Under the Willow, School Outdoors Dulwich, Crystal Nurseries and Mother Goose Greendale.

She also presented two family singing and junk-instrument-making sessions, The Sounds of Water, at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses in Herne Hill.

Regular Bangers & Smash nurseries

Children and staff enjoyed:

• looking at a picture of the earth and pointing out the water and the land

• learning about how the earth orbits the sun and singing a circle song – accompanied by handbells – to welcome the New Year

• making models of the earth and sun and and choosing one child to hold the sun in the middle of the circle while another walks around holding the earth

• passing a toy snowflake around and thinking of words to describe snow:

  • cold

  • freezing

  • icy

• touching a foil blanket and thinking of words to describe the sound of snow:

  • crunchy

  • scrunchy

• jumping and reaching up as Kitty waved the foil blanket over their heads

• learning songs & poems about snow:

  • Three Little Snowflakes

  • Snowland

Snowflakes at School Outdoors Dulwich

• listening to and trying out wooden and plastic rainsticks

• thinking of words and sounds to describe rain:

  • pitter patter

  • drip drop

  • swoosh

• accompanying these with actions (tapping knees, wiggling fingers etc)

• singing rain songs with shakers:

  • I Hear Thunder

  • It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

  • Rain, Rain, Go Away

  • Incey, Wincey Spider

• putting the rain sounds, actions and songs together to create a performance

Shakers and rainsticks at Mother Goose Greendale

• finding a partner and singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat with actions

• looking at a family of rubber ducks and singing:

  • Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day

  • Ducks Like Rain

• listening to Kitty’s story, The Journey of a Raindrop, and thinking about how tiny streams become rivers that flow into the sea

• performing the story with vocal and body percussion while listening to Vltava (The Moldau) by Bedřich Smetana

• bouncing a whale and a mermaid on a blue cloth and singing Little Ripples… Big Waves

• listening and singing along to Baby Beluga by children’s songwriter, Raffi

Baby Beluga in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden

We finished off the term with three songs celebrating Easter:

• The Easter Bunny

• Chick, Chick, Chicken

• The Easter Parade

Easter basket at Crystal Nurseries

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich

As well as the above, Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich brought their termly projects to a close with Project Celebrations for parents and carers on Friday 24 March.

Staff and children presented poems, songs and activities based on the theme of Water. School Outdoors Dulwich performed together as one big group while Under the Willow split into three smaller groups – babies, toddlers and preschoolers.

Kitty Pidduck presents…

The Sounds of Water

Kitty was also delighted to present two music sessions at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses. Families gathered at BPCG’s new learning centre, Brockwell Barn, on Monday 3 April to celebrate The Sounds of Water.

As well as playing rainsticks, singing songs and dancing to watery music, children created their own junk orchestra and took turns to conduct.

They finished off with a water hunt, during which they filled watering cans and emptied them into the pond. This simple yet hugely engaging multi-sensory activity was the highlight of both sessions – big thanks to BPCG’s Children and Families Programme Manager, Charlene, for suggesting it!

Emptying watering cans into the pond!

Music in the Wildlife Garden

And finally, it’s time to join Kitty and Sarah on Saturday 29 April for their annual Music in the Wildlife Garden event at the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

As well as singing and junk-instrument-making, this FREE event for adults, families and accompanied children will feature pond-dipping and watery art activities courtesy of Berengère Ducoms and Hannah Littlejones.

Please come along and bring your little ones!

Winter fun with Bangers & Smash!

November and December were super-busy at Bangers & Smash with Christmas plays, concerts and events to prepare for and projects to bring to a close!

It was brilliant to see Santa’s reindeer at the Mother Goose Greendale Winter Fair!

Kitty continued to run music sessions at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, Under the Willow, School Outdoors Dulwich, Crystal Nurseries and Mother Goose Greendale, as well as presenting songs from her preschool series, Daisy Digs It, at the Oval Montessori Nursery in Vauxhall and Carols in the Wildlife Garden – with Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen – at the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich brought their termly projects to a close with Project Celebrations for parents and carers on Friday 25 November.

Staff and children presented poems, songs and activities based on the theme of Me, Myself & I.

Me, Myself & I

We looked at The Skin You Live In by Michael Tyler and David Lee Csicsko and thought about what makes us different and what makes us the same.

Children made their own self-portraits and sang and danced to:

• Ko Le Le (a hello song in the Kikongo language)

• Roly Poly (a hand rhyme)

• Bangers & Smash original, Two Eyes

• Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in English, Igbo, Yoruba and Japanese

• Onye Ga Agba Egwu (which means Who Will Dance? in the Igbo language)

• Namaste, How Are You? (a song for Diwali)

• Bangers & Smash original, In My Happy Family

• Me, Myself & I by De La Soul

Staff also shared their favourite songs, including:

• Brown Girl In The Ring

• Banana Boat Song by Harry Belafonte

• The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh) from The Lion King

Both nurseries celebrated Christmas with performances for parents and carers, including festive songs at Under the Willow and a fairytale treasure hunt at School Outdoors Dulwich.

All set for our Christmas celebration at School Outdoors Dulwich!

Crystal Nurseries and Mother Goose Greendale

Nurseries began rehearsals for their Christmas concerts in November, ready to perform them for parents and carers in December.

Crystal Nurseries hosted performances of Kitty’s musical play, Christmas At The Toyshop, in all three nurseries. Staff and children dressed up as toy soldiers, dancing dolls, puffer trains, monsters, elves and teddy bears and sang songs celebrating the Nativity.

Meanwhile, at Mother Goose Greendale, babies and toddlers made Christmas videos for parents and carers while preschoolers performed festive songs in the Wildlife Garden.

Kitty Pidduck presents…

Daisy Digs It at the Oval Montessori Nursery

And finally, Kitty presented songs from her preschool series, Daisy Digs It, at the Oval Montessori Nursery in Vauxhall on Monday 7 November.

Staff and children learned about Daisy and her dog, Badger, and sang and danced to songs about nature, gardening and wildlife.

Big thanks to Louise and all the staff & children at Oval Montessori!

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty and Sarah also hosted their annual Carols in the Wildlife Garden event on Saturday 10 December.

Over 50 people turned up to sing festive songs, make Christmas wreaths with artists, Hannah Littlejones and Berengere Ducoms, and share mulled drinks & mince pies in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash!

We’d like to wish you all a very Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash – we look forward to seeing you in 2023!

Me, Myself and I with Bangers & Smash

Our Autumn term got off to a flying start with songs and activities on the theme of Me, Myself and I at Bangers & Smash!

Me, Myself and I

With so many new children starting nursery, it made sense to think about ourselves in September and October.

As well as talking about our faces and bodies, we sang about our families and the people who look after us, celebrating our similarities and differences and learning about our heritages and those of our friends.

September

Children and staff enjoyed:

• singing a welcome song in the Kikongo language, Ko Le Le (courtesy of Euphrasie, who comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo), while tapping an ostinato rhythm on their knees

• thinking about the different things they can do with their hands – shaking, wiggling fingers, clapping etc

• performing a hand rhyme, Open, Shut Them

• singing a simple repeated melodic phrase over the words, Me And You, while pointing at themselves and their friends

• singing Bangers & Smash original, Two Eyes, and pointing to different parts of their faces

• looking at a doll and naming the different parts of its body

• singing Miss Polly Had A Dolly

• singing Head, Shoulders, Knees And Toes with actions

• dancing The Hokey Cokey

• performing Bangers & Smash original, In My Happy Family, with bells and drums

October

Children and staff enjoyed:

• adding a harmony to the Ko Le Le welcome song

• performing a hand rhyme, Roly Poly

• extending the rhyme to include:

  • stroking their hands, touching their faces, feeling their hair and stretching

  • blowing a kiss to their families and hugging themselves

• reading The Skin We Live In by Michael Tyler and David Lee Csicsko

• singing Bangers & Smash original, Two Eyes, and adding in a verse about their skin

• learning Head, Shoulders, Knees And Toes in Igbo and Yoruba (courtesy of Chiamaka, Nkechi, Juliet, Caroline and Yemi, who come from Nigeria)

• taking part in a circle dance, Brown Girl In The Ring (courtesy of Carol, Victoria, Vinette, Trishana and Moisha, who have Jamaican heritage)

• playing bells and dancing to another song in the Igbo language, Onye Ga Agba Egwu? [Who Will Dance?] (courtesy of Chiamaka, Nkechi, Juliet and Caroline)

• pretending to look in a mirror and dancing to Me, Myself And I by De La Soul

Celebrating Black History Month and Diwali

Black History Month

Staff also sang and performed their own songs in celebration of Black History Month.

Big thanks to:

• Peaches for Go Down Emmanuel Road and Victoria for Hill And Gully Rider (both Jamaican songs)

• Aziza for Ba Ba (a song from Morocco about a boy and his sheep)

• Marie and Doris for dancing and singing to By The Rivers of Babylon by Boney M (accompanied by shrieks of joy from the babies and toddlers!)

Diwali

During half-term, Kitty presented a special session celebrating Diwali, the Indian Festival of Light.

Staff and children enjoyed:

• singing a new hello song in Hindi and Arabic, Namaste, As-salaam Alaikum

• performing a hand rhyme, Rum Pum Pum

• looking at pictures of diyas (candle-holders) and rangoli patterns

• lighting a candle and singing two Diwali songs:

  • This Is The Way We Light The Lights

  • Diwali Is Coming

• dancing with scarves to Indian flute music

• performing Bollywood moves to Indie-Yarn by Trickbaby

Kitty Pidduck presents…

November sees Kitty start rehearsals for Project Celebrations at Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich and Christmas Shows at all other Bangers & Smash nurseries.

Oval Montessori Nursery

Kitty has also been invited to present songs from her animated preschool series, Daisy Digs It, at the Oval Montessori Nursery in Vauxhall on Monday 7 November.

For more information, please click here.

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

And finally, Kitty and Sarah will present a Christmas wreath-making and singing session, Carols in the Wildlife Garden, for families and members of the local community at Mother Goose Wildlife Garden on Saturday 10 December.

Hosted by artists, Hannah Littlejones and Berengere Ducoms, this free event is open to everyone so do come along and bring your little ones!

A Carnival Summer with Bangers & Smash!

We’ve had a great Summer at Bangers & Smash with songs, activities, projects and celebrations on the theme of Carnival!

In regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, children and staff have enjoyed:

• learning a welcome rap and performing it as a call and response with Kitty

• tapping the pulse on:

  • their bodies

  • claves

  • drums

• looking at We All Celebrate by Chitra Soundar and Jenny Bloomfield and talking about Carnival in different parts of the world

• looking at pictures of children celebrating Carnival in Brazil, Trinidad & Tobago and the UK

• dancing to music from Latin America and the Caribbean, including:

  • Fanfarra (Cabua-Le-Le) by Sergio Mendes

  • Rodopiou by Nazare Pereira

  • Banana, Banana, Banana and Peanut Vendor by the Kew Park Mento Band

  • Hot, Hot, Hot by Arrow

• singing songs from Latin America and the Caribbean, including:

  • Dulce, Dulce

  • Mama Paquita

  • Brown Girl In The Ring

  • Come Back, Liza

  • Hill An’ Gully Rider

  • Linstead Market

Kitty also set a poem about Carnival to music. Children and staff enjoyed playing along on junk drums and joining in with a rhythmic ostinato (repeated phrase) at the end.

Carnival Project Celebrations

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich presented Carnival-inspired Project Celebrations for parents and carers on Thursday 21 July.

All set for our Carnival Project Celebration at School Outdoors Dulwich!

Children dressed up in Carnival costumes and performed songs and poems learned during the term.

Under the Willow’s Carnival backdrop

Kitty Pidduck presents…

Kitty was also delighted to present two family music sessions at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses as well as a five-week outdoor music project at Purple Jay Nursery in Peckham Rye.

Carnival of Sound

Families gathered at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses’ new learning centre, Brockwell Barn, on Tuesday 26 July to celebrate the sounds of nature, Carnival-style!

Participants sang songs and learned about Carnival before heading to the orchard to forage for natural soundmakers (leaves, seedpods etc).

So many wonderful sounds to collect!

They put their sounds inside recycled boxes which they decorated with brightly coloured paper to make junk drums / shakers. They also made drumsticks out of hazel and bamboo.

An old chocolate box filled with twigs and leaves makes a great shaker!

After dancing to music from Brazil and Montserrat, they dressed up in colourful cloaks and paraded in a circle with their drums, singing a specially written song, It’s Carnival Time.

Sing me a song, tell me a rhyme, dance me a dance, it’s Carnival Time!

The Birds who Flew to Carnival

Kitty was also invited to devise and run a five-week project at Purple Jay Nursery in Peckham Rye with the aim of engaging preschoolers and staff in an outdoor music performance.

Entitled The Birds who Flew to Carnival, the project encouraged participants to take inspiration from natural, found and experienced sounds and to weave them together with story, song, music, dance, art and craft to create a performance for parents and carers on Tuesday 2 August.

Getting ready for our Carnival performance!

As part of the project, children took a ‘sound walk’ to Peckham Rye Park to collect their own sounds (leaves, twigs, pebbles etc) before putting them in recycled bottles to make junk shakers. They also made claves out of hazel and bamboo.

They used these instruments to accompany songs from Latin America and the Caribbean – including songs suggested by staff members – as well as their own song, We’re Making A Carnival Of Sound.

Mama Paquita and her baby all set to go to Carnival!

Everything came together in a performance about two birds who fly to Brazil and Jamaica – growing brightly coloured feathers on the way – to experience Carnival first-hand.

The children decorated their own birds and gave them names!

Thanks to everyone at Purple Jay for making The Birds who Flew to Carnival such a success. We look forward to working with you again!

Moving into Autumn

As we move into Autumn, we’ll be thinking about ourselves and our families as we explore the theme of Me, Myself and I at Bangers & Smash.

Kitty and Sarah will also be presenting a session for parents and members of the local community at Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in December so watch this space!

Spring and baby animals with Bangers & Smash

Continuing our theme of Spring and new life, we sang songs about baby animals this May at Bangers & Smash.

Children and staff enjoyed:

• looking at a book, Noisy Farm, and making the sounds of the animals

• playing with a mummy duck, daddy duck and some baby ducks and singing:

  • Five Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day

  • Six Little Ducks That I Once Knew

  • Ducks Like Rain

• looking at a selection of toy farm animals and singing:

  • Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

  • Hey, Diddle, Diddle

  • Horsey, Horsey

  • Giddy Up, I’m A Cowboy / Cowgirl

• using their voices and tongues to mimic the sounds of a horse neighing and clip-clopping

• playing claves at different speeds to make the sounds of a horse walking, trotting and galloping

• listening and moving to Hoe Down from Rodeo by Aaron Copland

• singing Old Macdonald Had A Farm and clapping the rhythm of the words, Ee I Ee I O

Kitty Pidduck presents…

Kitty was also delighted to present family music sessions at the Centre for Wildlife Gardening and Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses.

Nature Tots

Big thanks to Diana from the London Wildlife Trust for inviting Kitty to work with the Centre for Wildlife Gardening’s Nature Tots forest school group on Monday 23 May.

Parents and children enjoyed singing songs about wildlife and playing claves made from bamboo and hazel before toasting their own fruit kebabs on the fire.

Afterwards, Diana gave Kitty a tour of the Centre, which is a hidden gem and well worth a visit!

Animal Parade

Kitty went on to present a morning of animal-themed songs and activities at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses on Monday 30 May.

In celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Kitty kicked off with a song about a cat visiting a queen before asking the children to sing about animals they might meet in Brockwell Park.

Kitty Cat, Kitty Cat, where have you been? I’ve been up to London to visit the Queen!

Families then made animal crowns and junk shakers and danced to carnival music from Brazil.

Afterwards, everyone lined up ready to parade to the pond with their crowns and shakers…

And here we are, serenading the frogs and pond skaters!

Thanks to everyone who came to our music sessions this May and to all Bangers & Smash nurseries and outdoor settings for continuing to support our work 💚

Winter and Lunar New Year with Bangers & Smash

It’s February half-term and a chance to reflect on the last six weeks with sessions on Winter and Lunar New Year at Bangers & Smash!

Check out School Outdoors Dulwich’s fab homemade bells!

Winter

January was cold and windy with plenty of scope for songs and activities based on Winter weather and keeping warm.

Children and staff enjoyed:

• learning a new hello song – Bangers & Smash original, Colourful Clothes – and taking it in turns to sing about what they’re wearing

• talking about warm Winter clothes

• warming up their bodies with a chant about clapping, wiggling fingers and conducting the band

• adding their own actions to the song, This Is The Way We Clap Our Hands

• learning songs and rhymes about snow, including:

  • Three Little Snowflakes

  • Snowland

• thinking about quiet and loud sounds and making their own snow music with:

  • body percussion

  • vocal sounds

  • bells

• listening to two sets of jingle bells – one with lots of tiny bells (quiet) and the other with five larger bells (loud)

• taking it in turn to hide the bells behind their backs before:

  • bringing out whichever set of bells the other children ask for – quiet or loud

  • choosing a set of bells to play behind their backs and asking the other children to guess which one it is – quiet or loud

• dancing like snowflakes to Tchaikovsky’s Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy from The Nutcracker Suite

• dancing in a circle to Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush

Being able to teach outdoors in some nurseries has been hugely beneficial for Bangers & Smash co-founder, Kitty Pidduck, as she moves towards pitching her animated preschool series to broadcasters at this year’s Children’s Media Conference (CMC).

Based on outdoor learning and messy play, the series is bursting with original songs about wildlife and the environment.

Kitty is also reaching out to other outdoor settings and is looking forward to attending a wild workshop/CPD day with Chris Holland at the end of February – Natural Musicians.

If you’d like to know more about Kitty’s preschool series, please check out https://kittypidduck.com!

Lunar New Year

The first two weeks of February brought celebrations in the form of Lunar New Year, which takes place in many East and South-East Asian countries, including China and Vietnam.

Children and staff enjoyed:

• singing a hello song in Mandarin to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

• learning how Chinese people greet each other during Lunar New Year – Gong Hei Fat Choy!

• looking at Kitty’s Chinese opera hat and trying on conical bamboo hats from China and Vietnam

• looking at a tiger puppet and learning about the Year of the Tiger

• singing two tiger songs:

  • ‘I’m Ticklish,’ Said The Tiger

  • Tiger, Tiger, Orange And Black

• listening to a poem about a dragon – A Dragon’s Very Fierce – and adding in tambour, bamboo claves, tambourine, glockenspiel and handbells to create a performance

• listening and galloping like horses to traditional Chinese music

Kitty brought in a selection of instruments and props, including a moon, a tiger and a silk scarf!

Music in the Wildlife Garden

And finally, Kitty and Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen, will be presenting another of their popular singing and junk-instrument-making sessions in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden on Saturday 26 March.

Sarah and Kitty at last September’s Music in the Wildlife Garden event

Music in the Wildlife Garden runs from 10am to 2pm and is a free, drop-in event for families and members of the local community.

It would be lovely to see you there!

Celebrating Christmas with Bangers & Smash

It’s been a busy November and December at Bangers & Smash with Christmas plays, concerts and events to prepare for and projects to bring to a close!

Kitty and Sarah presenting Carols in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty has continued to run indoor and outdoor sessions at Crystal Nurseries, Mother Goose Greendale, Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich as well as hosting a Zoom Christmas Concert for Mother Goose Greendale and presenting Carols in the Wildlife Garden with Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen.

Crystal Nurseries and Mother Goose Greendale

Diwali and Bonfire Night

Children and staff at Crystal Nurseries and Mother Goose Greendale celebrated Diwali and Bonfire Night in the first part of November.

They enjoyed:

• looking at pictures of rangoli patterns and Diwali lights while singing:

  • Diwali Is Coming

  • This Is The Way We Clean The House (to the tune of Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush)

• looking at a branch and listening to the leaves shaking

• talking about Bonfire Night and singing:

  • Bangers & Smash original, Red Flames, Yellow Flames

  • On Bonfire Night

Christmas

Crystal Nurseries then began rehearsals for their Christmas concerts, which we performed on Zoom and video in mid-December.

A couple of Santa’s reindeer!

Children and staff enjoyed dressing up as Mary & Joseph, shepherds, kings, angels, stars, robins, reindeer, Santas and trains and singing, dancing and playing to festive songs and carols, including:

• When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney

• Jingle Bells

• Rockin’ Robin

• Mary Had A Baby

• Twinkle, Twinkle, Christmas Star

• Away In A Manger

• Silent Night

• We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Meanwhile, children and staff at Mother Goose Greendale practised festive songs for their Zoom Christmas Concert on Sunday 19 December.

All set to start the Mother Goose Zoom Christmas Concert!

Over 25 families and members of staff attended and we had fun tapping wooden spoons to make the sound of Rudolph’s hooves, shaking bells in Jingle Bells and showing everyone our special stars and crowns!

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich brought their termly projects to a close with Project Celebrations for parents and carers on Thursday 25 November.

Animals

Staff and children at Under the Willow presented poems, songs and activities based on the themes of Minibeasts, Animals on Land and Animals Under the Sea.

An animal crown

Children dressed up in animal crowns and sang and danced to:

• A Worm Is Very Wiggly

• Incey Wincey Spider

• There’s A Tiny Caterpillar On A Leaf

• Sticky Situation by Kiko Bun

• The Ladybugs’ Picnic

• Down In The Jungle

• One Big Elephant

• Monkey, Monkey, Up The Tree

• Bangers & Smash original, Monkeys Are Clever

• 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Once I Caught A Fish Alive

• Little Crab

• The Children Went To Sea, Sea, Sea

• Baby Shark

• Under The Sea from The Little Mermaid

Trees

Meanwhile, staff and children at School Outdoors Dulwich presented songs and activities based on the theme of Trees.

Getting ready for School Outdoors Dulwich’s Project Celebration!

Children played the names of nuts and fruits on sticks and shakers and sang and danced to:

• Five Little Leaves

• The Parts Of Trees

• If You’re Ever In The Forest

• Bangers & Smash original, I Like Trees

• Under The Baobab Tree

• Yellow Bird

• Fanga Alafia

Both nurseries celebrated Christmas with performances for parents and carers, including festive songs at Under the Willow and a musical play at School Outdoors Dulwich.

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

And finally, Kitty and Sarah presented their annual Carols in the Wildlife Garden event on Sunday 12 December.

Over 80 people turned up to make Christmas wreaths, sing festive songs and share mulled drinks and mince pies around the fire pit in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

Making Christmas wreaths in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden

One happy Mum said: ‘My daughter instructed me that if you ever have any other events, we have to go. She loved it!’

To read Kitty’s blog post about Carols in the Wildlife Garden, please click here.

Merry Christmas from Bangers & Smash!

We’d like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash – we look forward to seeing you in 2022!

Autumn fun with Bangers & Smash!

It’s been a busy Autumn at Bangers & Smash with sessions on Trees, Trees in Africa and the Caribbean, Minibeasts and Animals on Land!

If you’re ever in the forest, the forest, the forest, if you’re ever in the forest, you’ll see lots of trees!

Regular nurseries and outdoor settings

Trees

At Crystal Nurseries, School Outdoors Dulwich and Mother Goose Greendale, we spent September thinking about trees and wooden sounds.

Children and staff enjoyed:

• listening to the sound of leaves and learning a hand rhyme, Five Little Leaves

• passing a toy tree round the circle and finding words to describe how it feels:

  • prickly

  • spiky

  • tickly

• looking at a silver nutmeg and a golden pear while singing I Had A Little Nut Tree

• looking at a picture of a tree and finding the roots, trunk, branches and leaves

• singing The Parts Of Trees (to the tune of Head, Shoulders, Knees And Toes) and pretending to grow into trees

• looking at pictures of different trees and identifying them (e.g. oak, sycamore, pine, holly)

• singing If You’re Ever In The Forest (to the tune of Did You Ever See A Lassie?) while tapping and rubbing claves together like branches

• making the sound of the wind and swaying from side to side

• tapping claves in time with Kitty’s poem, I Like Trees

• tapping the names of fruits and nuts on trees, logs, benches and tables

• looking at a homemade tree made from an egg box, a cardboard tube and a branch

Kitty’s homemade tree

If you’d like to know more, please check out Kitty’s blog posts, Poems upon the sky and The woods are never solitary.

Trees in Africa and the Caribbean

October is Black History Month and Kitty introduced songs and activities based on trees in Africa and the Caribbean.

Children and staff enjoyed:

• looking at pictures of baobab trees and singing Under The Baobab Tree by Iya and the Kuumba Kids

• looking at a picture of a banana tree and singing Yellow Bird

• screeching and flapping their wings like parrots

• looking at pictures of ackee fruit and singing Linstead Market

• looking at the book, Handa’s Surprise, and clapping the names of tropical fruit

In addition, Kitty asked staff of African and Caribbean heritage if they would like to share songs and stories from their heritages.

Huge thanks to Abina, Kemi, Caroline, Gay-Ann, Trishana and Vinette for sharing songs from Ghana, Nigeria and Jamaica and to Fatima for her story about a baobab tree.

If you’d like to know more, please check out Kitty’s blog post, Under the Baobab Tree.

Under the Willow

Meanwhile at Under the Willow, Kitty was able to support the nursery’s monthly themes with sessions on Minibeasts in September and Animals on Land in October.

Minibeasts

Children and staff enjoyed:

• dancing to There Ain’t No Bugs On Me by David Holt

• singing an action song, There’s A Tiny Caterpillar On A Leaf (to the tune of She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain)

• dancing like butterflies to Ballybrolly Jigs by Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen’s band, Flook

• making their hands into a (pretend) beehive and singing Here Is The Beehive

• learning Kitty’s poem, I Like The Bee, about how bees collect nectar and make honey

• singing A Worm Is Very Wiggly and making up their own actions for different minibeasts

• looking at a picture of ants and singing The Ants Went Marching

• singing two action songs about spiders:

  • Incey Wincey Spider

  • There’s A Spider On The Floor

• pretending to be stuck in a web and dancing to Sticky Situation by Kiko Bun

• playing sticks and pretend trumpets to The Ladybugs’ Picnic

Animals on Land

Children and staff enjoyed:

• thinking about animals that are big and small and wondering what they might sound like while:

  • looking at a toy elephant and mimicking the sound of an elephant trumpeting

  • looking at a toy mouse and pretending to squeak and eat cheese

  • wondering whether each animal’s sound is loud or quiet and how that relates to their size

• learning a poem, An Elephant Goes Like This & That

• singing One Big Elephant, One Tiny Mouse then adding in a dinosaur and an ant

• singing an action song, Way Down In The Jungle, led by Fatma

• looking at a toy monkey and lion and singing Monkey, Monkey, Up The Tree and Here’s A Great Big Lion

• dancing to Kitty’s song, Monkeys Are Clever

We also started rehearsals for Under the Willow’s and School Outdoors Dulwich’s Autumn Project Celebrations, which take place on Thursday 25 November!

Autumn activities with Bangers & Smash

In other news, Kitty and Sarah hosted another Music in the Wildlife Garden event at Mother Goose Wildlife Garden on 25 September.

We sang songs from Kitty’s musical series for 4-6-year-olds (currently in development with KingBee Animation) and made junk drums and claves with families and members of the local community.

If you’d like to know more, please check out Kitty’s blog post, Music in the Wildlife Garden.

How about that for an impressive drum?!

Kitty also ran a taster session for Sowing & Growing Nursery & Preschool in West Norwood on Tuesday 19 October. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sang songs about trees in the UK, Africa and the Caribbean and danced like leaves to Calico by Flook.

And finally, if you’d like to book your own music session(s) with Bangers & Smash, please get in touch here!

Welcoming the Summer with Bangers & Smash!

Here at Bangers & Smash, we’ve welcomed the Summer with sessions on Minibeasts, the Sun & the Moon, Space & Planets and Weights & Forces!

‘I like the bee and the bee likes me!’ Children in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden made up their own poem about a bee collecting nectar

Kitty is now back teaching face-to-face in all Bangers & Smash nurseries although sadly, Zoom sessions with The Elephants – a fabulous group of families who’ve been singing together since April 2020 – have come to an end in preparation for the children heading into Reception this September.

Regular nurseries and outdoor settings

Minibeasts

At Crystal Nurseries, School Outdoors Dulwich and Mother Goose Greendale, our Minibeasts theme has included songs and musical activities about bees, worms, ants, snails, spiders, caterpillars, butterflies, ladybirds and more.

Children and staff enjoyed:

• making their hands into a (pretend) beehive and singing Here Is The Beehive

• learning I Like The Bee, a poem about how bees collect nectar and make honey written by Kitty with the help of children in the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden

• singing A Worm Is Very Wiggly and making up their own actions for different minibeasts

• holding a leaf and singingThere’s A Tiny Caterpillar On A Leaf to the tune of She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain

• looking at a picture of ants and singing The Ants Went Marching with actions

• singing two action songs about spiders:

  • Incey Wincey Spider

  • There’s A Spider On The Floor

• pretending to be stuck in a web and dancing to Sticky Situation by Kiko Bun

• taking it in turns to hide under a scarf while the rest of the group searches for a snail in Follow The Silver Trail

• playing sticks and pretend trumpets to The Ladybugs’ Picnic

The Sun and the Moon

While School Outdoors Dulwich and Mother Goose Greendale continued with our Minibeasts theme during July, Crystal Nurseries spent the month learning about the Sun and the Moon.

As well as teaching a lovely song by Raffi, Big Beautiful Planet, Kitty introduced a variety of musical activities, including:

• rolling an earth ball to different children while singing a name song

• finding yellow things (scarf, star, banana, chick, duck etc) and showing them to the sun while chanting, Come on, su-un… come on, su-un… come on, su-un… shine!

• looking at a picture of the sun and singing, Mister Golden Sun

• playing bells and singing, You Are My Sunshine

• playing peekaboo with a cloth embroidered with stars and moons

• looking at a rocket and a moon lamp while:

  • joining in with actions to Up Like A Rocket by Steve Grocott

  • singing Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and Hey, Diddle, Diddle

• making the face of the Man in the Moon with different kinds of food while singing Aiken Drum

• clapping along while Kitty taps a pulse on two salad servers to And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle… And he played upon a ladle and his name was Aiken Drum!

• lying down with the lights off and listening to a lullaby, Winkum, Winkum

Check out our Aiken Drum!

Under the Willow

Meanwhile at Under the Willow, Kitty was able to support the nursery’s monthly themes with sessions on Space & Planets in June and Weights & Forces in July and August.

Space & Planets

As well as singing songs about the sun and the moon (see above), Kitty introduced the following musical activities:

• singing Big, Beautiful Planet by Raffi

• rolling an earth ball to different children while singing a name song then asking them to roll it to somebody else

• teaching a call and response song, Solar System, during which children chant and tap the names of the planets

• walking round in a circle then switching directions to Sally Go Round The Moon

• making the face of the Man in the Moon with different kinds of food while singing Aiken Drum

• clapping along while Kitty taps a pulse on two salad servers to And he played upon a ladle, a ladle, a ladle… And he played upon a ladle and his name was Aiken Drum!

• teaching new words about a giant ball of glowing gas to Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

• dancing to Walking On Sunshine by Katrina & the Waves

In addition, preschoolers learned a leaving song, Big School, Big School, Here We Come.

Weights & Forces

This was a new theme for Bangers & Smash and Kitty scratched her head about it for a while before coming up with some rather cool musical activities:

• singing an action song, A Penny Balloon

• thinking about animals that are heavy and light and wondering what they might sound like while:

  • looking at a toy elephant and listening to a recording of an elephant trumpeting

  • mimicking the sound of the elephant and waving their arms in front of their noses like trunks

  • looking at a toy mouse and pretending to squeak and eat cheese

  • wondering whether each animal’s sound is loud or quiet and how that relates to their size

• listening to a recording of An Elephant Goes Like This & That

• learning actions to a new song, One Big Elephant, One Tiny Mouse, then adding in a dinosaur and an ant

• singing Hickory Dickory Dock and thinking about a pendulum swinging from side to side while playing a pulse on claves

• trying the pulse at different speeds

• looking at:

  • a picture of children on a seesaw and singing Seesaw, Marjorie Daw

  • a clockwork roundabout and singing Round & Round On A Roundabout

• getting into pairs and singing Row Your Boat

In addition, under-twos enjoyed singing and dancing to songs from Uganda and Malawi while looking at our Book of the Month, Handa’s Surprise.

Summer activities with Bangers & Smash

We’re proud to announce that Kitty has been invited to run a wildlife music session at Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses on 25 August. This is a new setting for Bangers & Smash and we do hope you’ll come along if you can!

In addition, Kitty and Sarah will be hosting another Music in the Wildlife Garden event at Mother Goose Wildlife Garden on 25 September.

There’s more information about both events at:

• Kitty Pidduck at the Community Greenhouses

• Music in the Wildlife Garden

And if you’d like to book your own wildlife music session, please click here!

I hear thunder – exploring the weather with Bangers & Smash!

This June and July, we’ve been thinking about weather at Bangers & Smash.

Photo by Alex Jackman on Unsplash

Each week, we’ve explored a different kind of weather or weather phenomenon:

• rain

• thunder

• wind

• rainbow

• sunshine

Children have enjoyed:

• identifying rain, thunder and wind from sound recordings

• taking turns to come to the front to play a rainstick and a thunder drum

• tapping their cheeks, patting their knees and stamping their feet to make the sound of rain and thunder

• trying out different phrases to describe rain and thunder e.g. ‘plip plop’, ‘pitter patter’, ‘boom’, ‘bang’, ‘crash’

• tapping and banging junk drums to make the sounds of rain and thunder

• blowing coloured scarves to make the sound of the wind then throwing the scarves in the air and saying, ‘Whoosh!’

• making the shape of a rainbow with coloured scarves then throwing them in the air and saying, ‘Rainbow!’

• making the shape of the sun with yellow scarves then throwing them in the air and saying, ‘Happy!’

• dancing to Walking On Sunshine by Katrina & The Waves

Kitty has introduced a new song, Beautiful Rain, which incorporates body percussion in a slow, out-of-time intro before inviting everyone to sing a repeating phrase over a 4/4 pulse while playing a simple rhythmic pattern on junk drums:

Rain falling on --------’s drum (bang bang)
Rain falling on --------’s drum (bang bang)

It’s been great watching the children get to grips with singing and playing in time while naming themselves and their friends around the circle.

Children and staff have also enjoyed singing:

• It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

• Incey Wincey Spider

• Rain, Rain, Go Away

• Ducks Like Rain

• I Can Sing A Rainbow

• You Are My Sunshine

• The Sun Has Got His Hat On

• Mister Golden Sun

In addition, we’ve practised I Hear Thunder every week, gradually building up to a performance:

I hear thunder, I hear thunder
Hark, don’t you? Hark, don’t you?
Pitter patter raindrops, pitter patter raindrops
I’m wet through, so are you

I see blue skies, I see blues skies
Way up high, way up high
Hurry up sunshine, hurry up sunshine
I’ll soon dry, I’ll soon dry

Children have enjoyed singing while making the sound of rain and thunder on junk drums, blowing their scarves for the wind and waving them for sunshine before spreading them on their knees to ‘dry’.

South America Project Celebration at Under the Willow

Meanwhile at Under the Willow, we’ve continued our South America project with sessions on:

• animals of South America

• carnival

• music and language

• landscapes

• stories and legends

Photo by Carmel Arquelau on Unsplash

Children have enjoyed:

• taking it in turns to choose a picture of an animal while singing Walking Through The Rainforest

• making the sounds of South American animals – a high whoop for a toucan, a screech for a parrot, a low growl for a jaguar etc

• pretending to hang from a tree like a spider monkey while dancing to Rodopiou by Nazare Pereira

• dressing up in woven shawls while singing a Brazilian carnival song, Mama Paquita

• joining in with call-and-response body percussion before parading round in a circle to Fanfarra (Cabua-le-le) by Sergio Mendes

We’ve finished with our South America Project Celebration, which tells the story of how a little boy, Sambalalay, journeys across South America from Machu Pichu in the high Andes to Rio de Janiero in Brazil before going to carnival with Mama Paquita.

Written and directed by Kitty, the performance took place on Wednesday 10 July 2019 and brought together songs and musical activities from across the term.

Music in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty (vocals, guitar), Steve Rose (keyboard) and Polly Pidduck (backing vocals) were delighted to play for another Music in the Wildlife Garden session at Mother Goose Nursery Wildlife Garden on Saturday 29 June 2019.

On one of the hottest days of the year, families and members of the local community gathered to sing songs about wildlife (many of them Bangers & Smash originals), make and play junk percussion and enjoy tea, cake and a nature trail courtesy of host and wildlife gardener, Di Wallace.

Check out the pictures and video below!

The band – Steve, Polly and Kitty

Check out these awesome homemade shakers!

The children made their own owls to go with Kitty’s Owl Babies song!

Celebrating Spring, birth and new growth with Bangers & Smash!

We’ve had a busy April and May at Bangers & Smash with a series of sessions on Spring, birth and new growth!

Photo by Jack Bulmer on Unsplash

Spring and Easter

In the run-up to Easter, we’ve learned two songs about rabbits:

• Little Peter Rabbit Had A Fly Upon His Nose

• The Easter Bunny

Kitty has brought in a soft toy rabbit and and the children have enjoyed talking about how the Easter Bunny delivers eggs made of chocolate.

This has led to discussions about real eggs and the opportunity to learn a song about a chicken:

• Hey, Little Hen

Kitty has put some egg shakers and a toy chicken in a basket and asked the children to choose an egg each to play during the song.

At Mother Goose – Greendale, we’ve taken this one step further with a visit to the new chickens in the Wildlife Garden and lots of talk about the baby chicks hatching in an incubator in the preschool classroom.

We’ve also danced to There Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens by Louis Jordan and marched round the room wearing brightly coloured scarves to The Easter Parade.

Gardens and growing

Moving on, Kitty has played a song by Canadian children’s songwriter, Raffi:

• Everything Grows

With lots of stretching actions, this beautiful song is a great introduction to things that grow – from babies and animals, flowers and plants to fingers and toes, sisters and brothers and even Mums and Dads!

Kitty has then introduced a nursery rhyme about gardens:

• Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

We’ve chosen two instruments to represent Mary’s ‘silver bells and cockle shells’:

• a set of bells

• a chajcha

The children have taken it in turns to act out the song, walking round an imaginary garden, stopping to shake the instruments and, finally, touching all the children and staff on their heads during the line, ‘And pretty maids all in a row’.

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

Next, the soft toy rabbit has made a second appearance, this time as Gardening Bunny, complete with bucket, trowel and garden fork.

After showing the children how the bunny uses his tools to plant and water a seed, Kitty has invited individual children to come to the front and have a go. The room has become silent as each child has dug a (pretend) hole, popped a seed in, covered it with soil and poured on some water from the bucket, all with vocal sound effects.

Babies, toddlers and preschoolers have enjoyed this quiet, focussed activity which uses so many key skills – watching, listening and copying; exploring our voices; matching sounds to actions; using our imaginations; and, of course, using fine motor skills to wield the garden tools.

We’ve backed this up with another song about growing:

• Push Little Seed

Where possible, Kitty has taken the children outside where they’ve been able to crouch down like little seeds under the ground before pushing up through the soil and lifting their faces and arms to the sun.

We’ve finished our sessions on gardens and growing with two circle songs, again, performed outside where possible:

• Ring A Ring O’ Roses

• In And Out The Dusty Bluebells

Discovering South America at Under the Willow

Meanwhile, at Under the Willow, we’ve started our new 12-week project on South America.

Our first sessions have been about:

• flags, maps and landmarks

• the Amazon rainforest

• the Inca Trail and Machu Pichu

• fabric and colour

Children have enjoyed:

• finding South America on a map and learning to say hello in Spanish (hola) and Portuguese (olá)

• learning a new hello song from Brazil, Dulce, Dulce

• dancing to a cumbia version of La Bamba by Colombian group, La Sonora Dinamita

• curling up on the floor and listening to Deep In The Forest by Heitor Villa-Lobos

• listening to the sound of rain and making a rainstorm using body percussion and junk drums

• learning Bangers & Smash original, Don’t Be Alarmed By A Llama, and taking it in turns to walk the Inca Trail with a toy llama while listening to Astrid Gilberto’s Lugar Bonito

• taking it in turns to dress up in woven shawls while playing a Quechuan drum during the song, Sambalalay

Children and staff are looking forward to performing some of the above for parents and carers at Under the Willow’s South America Project Celebration on Wednesday 10 July 2019.

Music in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty (guitar/voice) and jazz legend, Steve Rose (keyboard), are delighted to have been invited to provide another Music in the Wildlife Garden session at the Mother Goose Nursery Wildlife Garden from 12 midday-4pm on Saturday 29 June.

This FREE session for families and members of the local community is part-sponsored by Southwark Council.

We'll be showcasing new songs about wildlife and gardening as well as making shakers and claves from recycled and natural materials – so do come along and bring your littl'uns!

If you go down to the woods...

…this March, you’re sure of a big surprise with a series of sessions on teddy bears at Bangers & Smash!

Photo by Oxana Lyashenko on Unsplash

We’ve started each session with the rhyme, Round & Round The Garden Like A Teddy Bear, which we’ve acted out with a teddy bear finger puppet.

Babies, toddlers and preschoolers have enjoyed interacting with the finger puppet and some older children have felt confident enough to come to the front to recite the rhyme on their own. It has been particularly effective as a way to explore the children’s ‘quiet voices’ and to engage in an activity which requires a high level of concentration and good listening skills.

Moving on, Kitty has introduced a bigger teddy bear and sung the song, I Know A Teddy Bear. Again, children have taken it in turns to come to the front to act out the song, rolling the teddy over and over on the line, Roly poly into town, knocking all the people down, and rocking him from side to side on the line, Pink pyjamas, furry feet, see him dancing down the street!

Following this, we’ve listened and sung along to Raffi’s version of the classic children’s song, Ha Ha Thisaway, which tells the story of a little boy who goes walking with his teddy bear and chooses a star ‘to go to’. Children have been quick to memorise the song and actions and have enjoyed repeating these every week.

Kitty has then introduced Teddy Bears’ Picnic, using the bigger teddy to mime walking out of the nursery to the park, climbing over the fence and walking through the woods to a clearing filled with picnicking teddies.

We’ve then acted out the song, sitting on a rug and using paper plates and spoons to:

• mime eating picnic food (which the children have enjoyed choosing)

• play a simple pulse

Finally, Kitty has played a recording of another Raffi classic, Teddy Bear Hug, and the children have either sung along with their own teddy bear (if nurseries have had enough for one per child) or passed Kitty’s around the circle, taking it in turns to give him a cuddle.

British Woodland

Meanwhile, at Under the Willow, we’ve continued our 12-week project, British Woodland, with three more sessions:

• tree dwellers

• nocturnal animals

• foraging in the woodland

As well as repeating songs and activities from previous sessions, Kitty has introduced a variety of new musical activities, including:

• taking turns to come to the front and play a clay bird whistle

• curling up like baby birds in a nest while listening to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony

• closing our eyes and identifying the sounds of nocturnal animals (a bird whistle, an owl call and a screech owl)

• pointing at pictures of trees and animals while singing Land Of The Silver Birch

• taking turns to choose a picture of a different kind of foraged food (blackberries, hazelnuts, wild garlic, mushrooms) while singing A-Foraging We Will Go

Britta Teckentrup’s Tree

We’ve also begun rehearsals for our British Woodland Project Celebration, during which children and staff will perform songs and activities based on Britta Teckentrup’s picture book, Tree.

Music in the Wildlife Garden

Last but not least, Bangers & Smash has once again been invited to run a singing and junk instrument-making session at the Mother Goose Nursery Wildlife Garden from 12-4pm on Saturday 29 June 2019.

We’ll be introducing more of Kitty’s original songs and are delighted to welcome pianist, double bass player and all-round jazz legend, Steve Rose, who will be providing some first-class accompaniment.

Music in the Wildlife Garden is a FREE family event so please bring your little ones along and join in the fun!