Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! with Bangers & Smash

This Autumn, we’ve been thinking about lions and tigers and bears at Bangers & Smash!

In September, Kitty ran Wizard of Oz-inspired sessions at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries, The Oval Montessori, Crystal Nurseries, Purple Jay Nurseries, Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich.

In October, we celebrated Black History Month with songs and activities from Africa and the Caribbean.

In November and December, it was time to rehearse and perform Christmas shows and concerts for parents and carers.

And last but not least, Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen, joined Kitty on Saturday 13 December to present an afternoon of singing and Christmas wreath-making at the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Camberwell.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Children and staff enjoyed:

• singing a hello song, Kolele, in the Congolese language

• looking at a map of the world and singing Do You Know Your Continents?

• placing a toy lion in Africa, a tiger in Asia and a bear in North America

• chanting Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My! with actions / gradually getting louder / clapping on beats 1, 2 and 3 / playing claves on beats 1, 2, and 3

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

• looking at more toy animals (monkey, elephant, crocodile, snake, meerkat etc) and adding them to our chant

• taking it in turns to wear a safari hat while singing Pole, Pole, a song about spotting animals in the wild

• listening to a story about a sleeping lion then dancing with yellow and orange scarves to The Lion Sleeps Tonight

• looking at a tiger puppet and learning two songs about tigers:

• ‘I’m Ticklish,’ Said The Tiger

• Tiger, Tiger, Orange And Black

• singing along to Ha, Ha, Thisaway by Raffi (a song about a bear)

• singing and dancing to Sleeping Lions, Sleeping Tigers and Sleeping Bears

• playing claves to Ssematimba Ne Kikwabanga, a recording of Ugandan musicians by ethnomusicologist, Hugh Tracey

• listening to a kidney bean shaker while jumping like beans in a pot to a song from Malawi, Nzama, Nzama

Black History Month

In 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, Abi, Mary, Jennifer, Abina, Kemi, Emma, Usainatu, Tanya, Theresa, Debo, Samelie, Wumi, Hilma, Peaches and Carol for the following:

• Ojo N Ro (It Is Raining), Bata Mia Dun Koko Ka and Ori Mi, Ejika, Orunkun, Ese from Nigeria (in the Yoruba language)

• Onye Gabwe Wu Iya and Onye Mere Nwa Nebe Akwa from Nigeria (in the Igbo language)

• Kofi and Che Che Kule from Ghana

• Ah Te Wa from Sierra Leone

• Ihorere Munyana from Rwanda

• Dis Long Time Gal, Emmanuel Road, Moonshine Tonight, One Love and Three Little Birds from Jamaica

• Feelin’ Hot, Hot, Hot from Montserrat

• Mais Que Nada from Brazil

• Going Back To My Roots from America

Teachers at Young & Smart Nursery after our whole school Black History Month celebration!

Christmas shows and concerts

In November and December, it was time to rehearse and perform Christmas shows and concerts for parents and carers.

Under the Willow and School Outdoors Dulwich

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

• Mary’s Boy Child

• Mary Had A Baby

• Feliz Navidad

• Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle

• Three Kings Were Riding

• Christmas Pudding

• When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney

• Rockin’ Robin

• Little Donkey

• Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer

• He’ll Be Coming Down The Chimney

Meanwhile, at School Outdoors Dulwich, staff and children sang Winter-themed festive songs under the Christmas tree, including:

• Five Little Leaves

• Fire, Fire, Burning Bright

• I’m A Little Snowman

• Jingle Bells

• We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Crystal Nurseries

Crystal Nurseries hosted performances of Kitty’s musical play, Christmas At The Toyshop, in all three nurseries.

Goslings Nursery’s performance took place at Hollydale Primary School

Children dressed up as toy soldiers, dancing dolls, monsters, puffer trains, Santas, elves and teddy bears and sang festive songs, including Bangers & Smash originals:

• The Toymaker’s Song

• See The Soldiers Marching Along

• Santa’s Little Helper

They also celebrated the Nativity with a magical fairy-light-lit rendition of Silent Night.

Purple Jay Nurseries

Staff and children at Purple Jay Herne Hill Dulwich and Purple Jay Lambeth sang songs for parents and carers in front of a festive backdrop.

Babies played bells and waved homemade stars while toddlers and preschoolers took it in turns to perform Christmas classics, Christmas Pudding, When Santa Got Stuck Up The Chimney and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer as well as a new song, Toys On The Christmas Tree (to the tune of This Old Man).

Everyone joined together at the end to sing We Wish You A Merry Christmas and dance to Rockin’ Robin!

A festive backdrop at Purple Jay Lewisham

The Oval Montessori

This year, parents and carers gathered in the nursery garden for Oval Montessori’s first outdoor Christmas concert!

Kitty was joined by Bangers & Smash co-founder, Sarah Allen, on flute and accordion as staff and children performed an array of festive songs, including:

• Little Drummer Boy

• You Gotta Sing

• Crimson Zapatitos

• Ring, Ring, Ring The Bells

• This Little Light Of Mine

• There Was A Little Baby

• Little Snowflake

• Catch A Falling Star

• Jingle Bells

• We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Afterwards, everyone celebrated with mulled drinks and cinnamon biscuits – a happy end to a fantastic term!

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

And finally, Kitty and Sarah hosted their annual Carols in the Wildlife Garden event on Saturday 13 December.

Sarah and Kitty by the campfire

Families and members of the local community gathered to sing festive songs, make Christmas wreaths with co-host, Marlon Gibbins, and share mulled drinks and 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 2026!

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!

Keeping the pulse with Bangers & Smash!

This April, we've been learning about keeping the pulse at Bangers & Smash!

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

We've started off by tapping our hearts and saying 'boom, boom, boom'. What's this? A heart beat. A heart is like a big pump that pushes blood around our bodies. It pumps steadily, making a beat or pulse. Can we make a pulse on our knees? Our heads? Our tummies? Where else might we make a pulse?

Over the sessions, we've developed this idea to ask what happens to our hearts when we run? When we sleep? This has allowed us to investigate the idea of speed and Kitty has invited individual children to the front to play pulses of different speeds so everyone can join in.

Continuing March's pet theme, we've sung Hickory Dickory Dock with our pet mouse, building on last month's work by (i) adding in more verses and actions; (ii) inviting children to the front to lead; (iii) tapping the pulse on our knees and on claves. By singing and tapping 'tick tock, tick tock, tick tock' at the end of each verse, children have been able to make the connection between a pulse and a ticking clock and this has led into a new song, Tick Tock Clock, in which children play tick tocks of different speeds on claves.

Other pet songs we've sung while creating a pulse include:

• I Want To Be A Little Mouse

• Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat

• One Mouse / Cat / Rabbit On A Trampoline

In the first two songs, we've explored 12/8 time, which gives a lilting feel, while in the last song, we've bounced our pets on a cloth in 4/4 time, which gives a straight or marching feel.

Moving on from this, we've marched in 4/4 time to The Grand Old Duke Of York – physicalising the pulse and feeling it throughout our bodies from the ground up – and danced to Hoots, Man! by Lord Rockingham's XI. Kitty has introduced a Scottish mouse and the children have enjoyed joining in with key phrases, 'Och aye!' and 'Hoots, Man, there's a moose loose aboot this hoose!'

Music in the Wildlife Garden

On Saturday 28 April, Kitty and Sarah were delighted to welcome families and members of the local community to Bangers & Smash's Music in the Wildlife Garden event at the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden.

Although it was a cold and windy day, over 80 people turned up to make drums and claves from recycled and natural materials and to sing songs about wildlife.

Kitty premiered two new songs – Wildflowers In The Grass and Dig Your Spade In – and parents and children enjoyed playing along to these as well as Bangers & Smash originals, Owl Babies, Tadpole, Flutter By and Hey, Stop Shaking Your Tail! on junk percussion.

Gardener, Di Wallace, was on hand with info about the wildlife garden and its inhabitants and, when it got too cold, visitors were able to warm up with tea, coffee and homemade biscuits in the shed.

All in all, it was a fabulous event and we look forward to more of the same next year!

Hey, Stop Shaking Your Tail!

We've kept things nice and simple at Bangers & Smash this March with a series of sessions on the theme of pets!

Photo by The Lucky Neko on Unsplash

Kitty has brought in a bag full of soft toys and introduced a new pet each week:

• a dog

• a cat

• a mouse

• a rabbit

Children and staff have enjoyed singing hello to the pets and talking about their own pets at home.

We've learned songs and nursery rhymes about dogs, cats, mice and rabbits, including:

• How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?

• Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?

• Hickory Dickory Dock

• Little Peter Rabbit Had A Fly Upon His Nose

We've also sung and danced to two new tracks:

• What's New, Pussycat? by Tom Jones: The children have picked up the lyrics really quickly and have enjoyed spreading their arms wide and singing What's New, Pussycat? Woah, woah wo-o-o-oh at the tops of their voices!

• Hey, Stop Shaking Your Tail! by Bangers & Smash: Kitty has used puppets to mime a dog and a cat shaking their tails, paws and ears. The children have loved shaking their own tails, paws and ears and running away as the dog tries to lick their faces!

In the final week, we've celebrated Easter with a series of songs and activities based on rabbits, chickens and eggs:

• We've gathered around a cloth with silver stars and moons on it and sung Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

• We've bounced our toy rabbit on the cloth while singing two new songs, The Easter Bunny's Feet go Hop, Hop, Hop and What Shall We Do With An Easter Bunny?

• We've sung Chick, Chick, Chicken and taken it in turns to play some egg shakers and cluck like chickens

STOP PRESS!! STOP PRESS!! STOP PRESS!! STOP PRESS!! 

Don't miss Bangers & Smash's singing and instrument-making session at the Mother Goose Wildlife Garden in Denmark Hill!

Kitty and Sarah will join wildlife gardener, Di Wallace, from 1-5pm on Saturday 28 April for this FREE session for families and members of the local community, part-sponsored by Southwark Council.

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

For more information, please click here.