Celebrating Christmas and My Body with Bangers & Smash!

We’ve had a busy end to the Autumn term at Bangers & Smash with rehearsals, performances, an outdoor community singalong and a Christmas party at Watermans Arts Centre!

Photo by Nati Melnychuk on Unsplash

Christmas shows

Preparations for Christmas began in November with Crystal Nurseries rehearsing Kitty’s version of the Nativity, Born In A Stable, and Mother Goose – Greendale practising their Christmas Show.

Come December, Crystal Nurseries parents and carers enjoyed performances in all three settings while Mother Goose – Greendale’s show took place at Christ Church in East Dulwich. Shows were jam-packed and it was wonderful to see the children and staff dressed up in their costumes, singing their hearts out.

My Body

Meanwhile, at Under the Willow, we brought our 12-week project, My Body, to a close with our final music sessions and My Body Project Celebration.

Our last two sessions were about:

• Growing and getting older

• The heart

Children enjoyed:

• growing up tall from a crouching position while making a rising ‘ooh’ sound

• singing Everything Grows by Raffi

• playing a steady pulse on claves while reciting Kitty’s rhyme, Here’s My Heart

• pretending to run while playing a fast pulse / pretending to sleep while playing a slow pulse

• taking it in turns to come into the middle and jump during the song, Jumping Bean

With songs and stories inspired by My First Book of the Human Body, which uses the Montessori method to help children develop an awareness of their own bodies, the My Body Project Celebration brought together songs and activities from previous sessions in a performance for parents and carers on 27 November 2019.

Christmas dress-up

We finished the term at Under The Willow with three sessions on Christmas during which children took it in turns to wear Santa and elf hats and to hold reindeer puppets while singing and dancing to:

• Here We Go Round The Christmas Tree

• Father Christmas

• Santa’s Little Helper

• Three Little Reindeer

• Jingle Bells

• When The Red, Red Robin

• Rockin’ Robin

• We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty was delighted to host Mother Goose Wildlife Garden’s annual Carols in the Wildlife Garden event on 14 December 2019.

With carol singing and Christmas wreath-making, families and members of the local community enjoyed mulled drinks round the fire pit and homemade mince pies courtesy of wildlife gardener, Di Wallace.

Kitty will be back in the Wildlife Garden this April with a junk instrument-making and singing session. Please click here for more details!

New project at Waterman’s Arts Centre

Kitty’s final music session of 2019 brought a new and exciting chapter for Bangers & Smash with the launch of a multi-arts project at Waterman’s Arts Centre for children in the early years with special educational needs and disabilities.

Kitty launched the project at Waterman’s Short Breaks Christmas Party on 20 December 2019 with a drop-in music session for Short Breaks children and their families.

As well as singing Christmas songs and dressing up as elves, Santas and reindeer, participants were introduced to the project, which combines original songs with activities based on gardening, learning about wildlife and recycling.

The new project runs from 10 January to 27 March 2020 and Kitty is delighted to be working with fellow early years music specialist, musician and storyteller, Steve Grocott, arts psychotherapy student and creative support leader, Aislinn Jeffers, and art and craft workshop providers, Art Jar.

A very Happy New Year from Bangers & Smash!

'Mama Yay': celebrating Black History Month with Bangers & Smash!

As usual, we’ve been celebrating Black History this October at Bangers & Smash with songs and activities from Africa and the Caribbean!

We’ve started each session by looking at The Skin You Live In, a beautifully illustrated book which 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

Children have looked at their own and their friends' skin and Kitty has talked about how people with brown and black skin come from the continent of Africa and live all over the world.

Our main song, Mama Yay, has been popular with both children and staff. It has a lovely call and response section in the middle:

• I’ll give you a smile (I’ll give you a smile)

• I’ll give you a wave (I’ll give you a wave)

• I’ll give you a hug (I’ll give you a hug)

• I’ll give you a kiss (I’ll give you a kiss)

Kitty has invited children to choose their own ideas for this section and they’ve come up with everything from ‘I’ll give you a giraffe’ to a ‘I’ll give you a happy’!

Black and Brown staff members have also shared songs and stories from their childhoods and heritages.

Thanks to the following:

• Tolu for Bata Mia Dun Koko Ka, a Nigerian song about the benefits of study, and Kemi for Iya Ni Wura, a Nigerian song celebrating motherhood – both in the Yoruba language

• Nkechi and Juliet for Okereke, a Nigerian song in the Igbo language in which children sit in a line and bounce a rolled-up cloth from one end to the other

• Sarah for Brown Girl In The Ring and Diane for Linstead Market – both folk songs from Jamaica

• Vinette for Oh Cordelia Brown and Andrea for Underneath The Mango Tree – both Jamaican songs recorded by Harry Belafonte

• Tianna, Carlos and CJ for Brown Skin Girl by Beyoncé, Hey Mama Africa by Stylez and African Queen by 2Baba

Thanks also to Drums for Schools for their wonderful Nursery Rhythm Kit, which we've used to accompany the above songs throughout the month. The children have loved trying out the different instruments and identifying what they’re made from:

• wood

• animal skin

• coconut shell

We’ve finished each session by dancing to Battú by Angélique Kidjo. Children have enjoyed jumping, stretching up high and listening out for the African flute.

My Body

Meanwhile at Under The Willow, we’ve continued our theme, My Body, with sessions on:

• Head, skull, brain

• Bones

• Muscles

• Health & hygiene

Children have enjoyed:

• tapping a simple rhythm on claves to Bangers & Smash original, Here’s My Skull

• using scarves to fire messages through the brain to Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

• moving around the circle like skeletons to Fats Waller’s Dem Dry Bones

• playing instruments from Drums for Schools’ Nursery Rhythm Kit to Bata Mia Dun Koko Ka, a Nigerian song about working hard

• working out to Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic

• singing two songs about washing and dressing, I Jump Out Of Bed In The Morning and Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush

Children and staff are looking forward to performing some of the above songs and activities for parents and carers at Under The Willow’s upcoming My Body Project Celebration on Wednesday 27 November 2019.

Christmas shows and activities

And finally, just a reminder that regular Bangers & Smash nurseries have their Christmas shows as follows:

• Crystal Nurseries Christmas Show

• Mother Goose – Greendale Christmas Show

In addition, Kitty and wildlife gardener, Di Wallace, will be hosting Carols in the Wildlife Garden at the Mother Goose Nursery Wildlife Garden from 11am-3pm on Saturday 14 December 2019.

With mulled wine, mince pies and more, this free community event is a great opportunity to belt out a few Christmas classics with your little ones – hope to see you there!

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!

'Funga Alafia': a welcome song from Nigeria!

We’ve had another great October at Bangers & Smash, singing songs from Africa and the Caribbean in celebration of Black History Month!

We’ve started each session with a name song from South Africa, Haya Ma, in which the children say their names and clap four times. It’s been lovely seeing even the youngest babies and toddlers recognise and respond to this simple song.

Moving on, we’ve looked at The Skin You Live In, a beautifully illustrated book which 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

Children have looked at their own and their friends' skin and Kitty has talked about how lots of people with black and brown skin come from the continent of Africa and live all over the world.

Our main song, Funga Alafia, comes from West Africa. There are many versions of this song but Kitty has chosen one by Iya and the Kuumba Kids with lyrics about Nigeria:

Funga alafia, ashe, ashe
Funga alafia, ashe, ashe

It’s a welcome song from Nigeria
Bringing peace and love to everyone
Grab a welcome if you please
I have nothing up my sleeves!

Children have had fun playing along to Funga Alafia with instruments from Drums for Schools’ fantastic Nursery Rhythm Kit. The kit contains a variety of instruments from around the world, including claves, agogos, shakers, scrapers, chime bars and drums.

Kitty has also asked Black and Brown staff members to share songs from their childhoods and heritages.

Big thanks to the following:

• Kemi for Labe Igi Orombo, a Nigerian song in Yoruba about playing under an orange tree

• Tolu for Bata Mi A Dun Ko Ko Ka, a Nigerian song in Yoruba about the benefits of study, and Aiku, Ajé, Isegun, Ojo ru, Ojo bo, Eti, Abameta, a song about the days of the week

• Juliet for O Kereke, a Nigerian song in Igbo in which the children sit opposite each other in a line with their legs outstretched and bounce a rolled-up cloth from one end to the other

• Jane for Kedu Onye Ga Abu Ojim, a Nigerian song in Igbo about finding a friend

• Sarah and Trianna for Kye Kye Kule, a West African call and response song

• Vinette for Evenin' Time, a song by Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer and educator, Louise Bennett

• Israel and Vinette for Go Down Emmanuel Road, a Jamaican song about passing stones around a circle, and Mango Time, a song about eschewing coffee in favour of mango juice

• Marcia for Brown Girl In The Ring, a Jamaican song about dancing

In addition, both children and staff have enjoyed singing and dancing to two songs about beans, Jumping Beans and Nzama, Nzama (a Malawian song), before getting on down to Blame It On The Boogie by Michael Jackson.

Earth Story – the beginning of life

At new Bangers & Smash nursery, Under the Willow, we’ve continued our 10-week project, Earth Story, during which we are learning about the origins of the Earth and its inhabitants.

Our next four sessions have been about:

• the elements: earth, fire, water, air

• simple life forms

• fossils, rocks and minerals

• volcanoes

Children have enjoyed:

• waving scarves and moving to Feux D’Artifice by Debussy and Vltava by Smetana while thinking about fire and water

• creating their own bacterium from scrunched-up newspaper and wriggling along the floor to Nautilus by B Bumble & the Stingers

• singing Let’s Dig, Dig, Dig, a song about finding fossils, rocks and minerals, and My Roots Go Down, a song by Sarah Pirtle, which Kitty has adapted to be about mountains and volcanoes

There are many versions of this last song but here’s Bangers & Smash’s favourite!

Under the Willow INSET and Project Celebration

Kitty also ran a successful INSET session at Under the Willow on Wednesday 24 October 2018.

With a variety of activities designed to explore teachers’ voices and vocal range, the session looked at:

• building confidence in singing and leading songs

• finding ways to reinforce songs from music sessions during the rest of the school day

Kitty, staff and children are working towards Under the Willow’s upcoming Earth Story Project Celebration and are looking forward to sharing songs and stories about the earth with parents and carers on Wednesday 28 November 2018.

Carols in the Wildlife Garden

Kitty (guitar/voice) and Sarah (flute/accordion) are delighted to have been invited to sing and play Christmas songs in the Mother Goose Nursery Wildlife Garden from 12-4pm on Saturday 15 December 2018.

As well as mulled drinks and mince pies, there’ll be wreath-making and, of course, the chance to sing your hearts out with Bangers & Smash.

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

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.

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!