People who help us

This March, we've been thinking about people who help us at Bangers & Smash.

Photo by Kai Butcher on Unsplash

This popular theme allows us to develop our knowledge and understanding of the world through singing, moving, playing and listening to songs about people and communities.

We've started each session with an action song, Tall Shops, which has helped us develop our gross motor skills with lots of stretching, swinging and bending. We've followed this with another action song – this time developing our fine motor skills by joining in with hand and finger actions to Raffi's Corner Grocery Store. It's been lovely watching the children get to know these songs so well that they request them at the start of each session and join in with all the actions and words.

Thinking about people who help us in shops, we've acted out the work of a supermarket checkout assistant, scanning the shopping (beep, beep) as it comes along the conveyor belt (zhuuuuzh), packing it in bags (rustle, rustle) and pressing the buttons on the till (beep, beep, beep!).

We've popped next door to the cobbler's to get our shoes mended and to the baker's to buy muffins and buns:

• In the cobbler's, we've used single claves to tap our shoes while singing Cobbler, Cobbler, Mend My Shoe.

• In the baker's, we've used two claves to tap a pulse as we sing and march to The Muffin Man.

• We've also acted out Five Currant Buns In The Baker's Shop as five children (currant buns) line up beside the baker while others take it in turns to buy a bun and take it away. The children are able to visualise the act of subtraction as the line of buns gradually reduces from five to one; they also pay the baker a penny a bun, allowing them to role-play using money.

All the above activities, including tapping a pulse, link to the Mathematics area of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) curriculum.

Thinking about people who help us in an emergency, we've enjoyed making the sounds of ambulance, fire engine and police sirens in Call, Call The Ambulance by Bangers & Smash co-founder, Kitty Pidduck. With older children, we've been able to take this concept further by splitting into groups and choosing one sound per group. Children have taken it in turns to act as conductor, signalling to each group when to start, when to stop and when to make their sounds all together.

Finally, thinking about people who help us at nursery, we've used percussion to perform the song, I Am The Music Teacher. Children have again split into groups (bells, shakers, claves) and taken it in turns to play their instruments, coming together at the end to 'play in the band':

I am the music teacher, I come from far away and I can play
What can you play? I play in the band!
All together-gether now, together now, together now
All together-gether now, all together now!

Plunging into the sea with Bangers & Smash!

After a cold, wet January learning about the water cycle, we've plunged straight into the sea this February at Bangers & Smash!

Photo by Sime Basioli on Unsplash

Starting each session with Baby Beluga by Raffi, we've listened to and imitated the sound of a beluga whale swimming with its mummy. The children have enjoyed learning actions to this beautiful song and repeating them every week.

We've also looked at the ocean drum (below), a large, flat drum containing ball bearings, which makes the sound of waves. The children have taken it in turns to tip the drum from side to side and to watch the ball bearings roll slowly over the fish and crabs pictured inside.

The main part of our sessions has been devoted to songs about the sea. We've used a large blue cloth to represent water and stretched it out so that everyone can hold on to the edge. We've created ripples by moving the cloth gently and waves by lifting it up and down. We've also bounced brightly coloured fish and sea creatures on the cloth and had fun making sure they don't fall off! Teachers and children have shared songs they know about the sea and we've repeated these each week.

Some of the songs we've sung are:

• A Sailor Went To Sea, Sea, Sea

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

• You Shall Have A Fishy On A Little Dishy

• The Big Ship Sails On The Alley, Alley-Oh

With this last song, the children have loved hiding under the cloth during the final verse ('We all dip our heads in the deep blue sea') while the teachers waft it over their heads.

Water, water everywhere and ne'er a drop to drink!

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.

Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash!

What a busy month December has been at Bangers & Smash with Christmas Shows at four of our regular nurseries!

Photo by Hillary Ungson on Unsplash

While we sang traditional Christmas songs and carols to accompany our Nativity at Mother Goose – Greendale, we opted for something more modern at Crystal Nurseries with an original show written by Bangers & Smash co-founder, Kitty Pidduck.

Winter Wonderland saw the children make snowmen and snowgirls, dance with the rockin' robins and meet Santa and his reindeer on Christmas morning before going back indoors for some turkey and Christmas pudding.

Meanwhile, children and staff at Le Nid enjoyed dressing up in Santa hats to sing festive songs such as When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney and Santa Claus is Coming to Town as well as dancing to Rockin' Robin by The Jacksons and All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey.

Kitty was also invited to lead the singing at Mother Goose Nursery Wildlife Garden's annual Carols in the Wildlife Garden event on Saturday 17 December.

While families and members of the local community enjoyed mulled wine, mince pies and wreath-making, Kitty played a selection of Christmas songs – from classic carols such as The Holly & the Ivy and Deck the Halls to more modern tunes like Let It Snow, Santa Baby and Jingle Bell Rock. To see what a good time was had by all, check out the pictures below!

Singing and wreath-making at the same time!

How do you keep those fingers warm, Kitty?!

This gentlemen joined in with a beautiful tenor!

Kitty and the Bangers & Smash team would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Migration and hibernation take us from Autumn into Winter

This November, as the weather gets colder and the festive season looms, we've been rehearsing our Christmas shows in some regular Bangers & Smash nurseries while thinking about Autumn and Winter in others.

Photo by Hans Poppe on Unsplash

Starting with the finger rhyme, Five Little Leaves, we've looked at how the trees lose their leaves as the wind blows through the town – brrr!

What do the animals do when it gets cold?

• The hedgehog burrows his way under some dead leaves and goes to sleep in our song, Sleep, Little Hedgehog. While some children like to curl up like hedgehogs, others enjoy shouting 'Wake up!' to remind their friends that Spring is on its way

How about the birds?

• Some migrate to warmer climes as demonstrated in Fly, Little Bird, a gentle song in a minor key in which the children flap their wings and fly away till Spring

• Others wait out the freezing weather with help from us in the form of bird seed, hanging feeders, fat balls and stale bread. In the song, Feed The Birds, from the film, Mary Poppins, the children take it in turns to purchase some (pretend) bird seed for 'Tuppence a bag' and put it into their friends' upturned mouths as they chorus, 'Tweet, tweet!'

Rounding off these sessions on seasonal migration and hibernation, both children and staff have loved flapping their wings and shaking their tailfeathers to The Jacksons' ever-popular Rockin' Robin!

Celebrating Black History Month with Bangers & Smash!

We always look forward to October at Bangers & Smash because it's Black History Month!

This year, we've had a blast singing and sharing songs and stories from Africa and the Caribbean while thinking about The Skin You Live In. This beautifully illustrated book uses sumptuous language and imagery to celebrate skin colour:

• your coffee and cream skin, your warm cocoa dream skin, your chocolate chip, double dip, sundae supreme skin

• your marshmallow treat skin, your spun sugar sweet skin, your cherry topped, candy dropped, frosting complete skin

• your butterscotch gold skin, your lemon tart bold skin, your mountain high, apple pie, cookie dough rolled skin

The children have enjoyed looking at their own and their friends' skin while singing and dancing to Brown Girl in the Ring in a circle.

Black and Brown staff members at regular Bangers & Smash nurseries have shared songs and stories from their childhoods and heritages.

Thanks to the following:

• Vinette and Israel for Go Down Emmanuel Road, a Jamaican song about passing stones around a circle

• Elizabeth for Nzama, a Malawian song about some tasty beans

• Ronke and Yemi for Labe Igi Orombo, a Nigerian song in the Yoruba language about playing under an orange tree

• Juliet and Nkechi for O Kereke, a Nigerian song in the Igbo language about passing stones around a circle

• Elizabeth for Benyi Ni Biti, a Ghanaian song about a man who plays a drum

Thanks also to Drums for Schools for their wonderful Nursery Rhythm Kit which we've used to accompany all the above songs throughout the month. The children have loved choosing their own instruments and using them to keep a pulse and join in with simple repeating rhythms.

We've also enjoyed dancing to Get Up, Edina by Desmond Dekker and Young, Gifted & Black by Bob & Marcia.

Israel said:

'Kitty has shown so much interest during Black History Month. She has done her research and got music from Africa and Jamaica. Kitty has raised an awareness to brown and chocolate skin children, how talented and beautiful they are.'