It’s been another exciting September at Bangers & Smash with a series of music sessions inspired by Kitty’s Summer trip to Asia!
Photo by Jamie Haughton on Unsplash
Taking monkeys as our main theme, we’ve looked at a large toy monkey and thought about how it might move and what sounds it might make:
oo oo oo
aa aa aa
ee ee ee
We’ve learned a new song, Monkey, Monkey, Up The Tree, and the children have enjoyed taking it in turns to make the monkey hang by its fingers, toes and tail.
Monkey, monkey, up the tree
I see you and you see me
Hanging by your fingers, hanging by your toes
But don’t fall down on your little pink nose!
By repeating the song every week, children have been able to get to grips with the lyrics and it’s been a pleasure watching them become confident at joining in. The final line has allowed them to find and point to their own noses as well as the monkey’s – a simple but pleasurable activity.
In the final session, Kitty has brought in a smaller toy monkey which attaches to the larger monkey with velcro. Watching the two monkeys swinging upside-down together has caused much hilarity and lots of chat about mummies carrying their babies!
Next, we’ve sung the classic children’s song, Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed. We’ve experimented with different ways of performing the song:
choosing five children to be the monkeys
bouncing five toy monkeys on a cloth
counting down from five on our fingers
The beauty of this song lies in its repetition but Kitty has been struck by how the melody varies from setting to setting. What’s great is that everybody knows a version of it, making it a fab song for staff and parents to build on outside the music session.
Moving on, Kitty has acted out the song, Animal Fair, with a soft toy elephant and a finger puppet monkey.
I went to the Animal Fair
The birds and the beasts were there
The big baboon by the light of the moon
Was combing his auburn hair
The monkey fell out of his bunk – uh oh!
And slid down the elephant’s trunk – whee!
The elephant sneezed – achoo!
And fell on his knees – boom!
But what became of the monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey
Monkey, monkey, monkey, monkey?
Once the children have become familiar with the story and song, Kitty has introduced claves and a steady pulse. This really kicks in on the last line, which can be repeated for as long as the children want and offers opportunities to play in different ways, for example:
loudly
quietly
getting louder (crescendo)
getting quieter (decrescendo)
tapping on the floor
Some groups have even been able to experiment with singing and playing the last line as an ostinato (repeating phrase) while Kitty sings the rest of the song over the top. This is quite an achievement as it requires children and staff to do one thing while listening to something different. This kind of split thinking happens, for example, when we sing a round and lies at the heart of more sophisticated music-making (singing or playing in harmony, polyphony etc).
Finally, we’ve listened and danced to Bangers & Smash original, Monkeys Are Clever. The children have enjoyed joining in with Kitty as she makes a variety of monkey/ape sounds and actions, including beating her chest like a gorilla and climbing to the top of a (pretend) tree.
My Body
Meanwhile at Under The Willow, we’ve started our new theme, My Body, with sessions on:
What is the body?
The senses – taste, smell and hearing
The senses – sight, touch and hearing
Children have enjoyed:
clapping, wiggling, stamping, stretching and shaking different parts of their bodies
singing about different body parts (eyes, ears, mouths, noses etc) in Bangers & Smash original, I’ve Got Two Eyes
dancing to Me, Myself & I by De La Soul
singing Ice Cream, a song about favourite foods
tapping claves along to a simple chant about smell
dancing like a ballerina to The Sugar Plum Fairy by Peter Tchaikovsky
marching like a soldier to The Liberty Bell by John Philip Sousa
lining up scarves to make a rainbow and singing, I Can Sing A Rainbow
lying on the floor and quietly shaking bells while listening to Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head by B J Thomas
Kitty wasn’t sure how easy it would be to find songs and musical activities to support the My Body theme but, in fact, with a bit of lateral thinking, it’s proved to be a rich source of inspiration and the children are really enjoying it!