This January, we've been thinking about water at Bangers & Smash.
Photo by Joshua Lanzarini on Unsplash
What does water look like? What does it feel like? What does water sound like when we:
turn on the tap?
water the garden?
listen to the rain?
The children have enjoyed making the sounds of water using:
their voices (pitter patter, drip drop, splish splash, swoosh swoosh)
their bodies (tapping their cheeks, patting their knees, stamping their feet to make the sound of a rainstorm)
instruments (shakers, claves, rainsticks)
We've begun each session with songs and nursery rhymes about rain such as I Hear Thunder, Rain, Rain, Go Away, It's Raining, It's Pouring and Incey Wincey Spider.
We've followed this with the story of the water cycle:
The rain falls on the mountain. It runs into the stream which tumbles into the river. The river winds its way through the fields, forests and towns all the way to the sea.
Along with this, we've listened and moved to Vltava by Smetana (making the shape of a river and following it to the sea) and The Sea from Sheherezade by Rimsky-Korsakov (diving down to the bottom of the sea and meeting an enormous whale!).
In addition, the children have listened and learned actions to Bathtime and Ducks Like Rain, both by Bangers and Smash's all-time favourite children's songwriter, Raffi.
