RevMusicMakers

Have fun with traditional songs with movements, numbers and colours.
This resource book for childminders, early years educators and reception class teachers aims to be truly inclusive in scope. Its broad and generous notion of the power of music serves to fulfil that aim – there are plenty of activities here in which children with a variety of special needs can participate with pleasure. Traditional songs – “The Grand Old Duke of York” or “Incy Wincy Spider” – come with suggestions that will keep fingers and limbs as well as voices busy. Others focus on concepts such as numbers and colours, or help children to identify where sounds come from and to discriminate between them.

The explanations in this book of how and why to use music as a facility for inclusive education are clear and simple to understand. Each section is linked to the Early Learning Goals for the Foundation Stage and Birth to three matters.

The author gives ideas of how to put circle time into practice and how to expand on it. We used the different methods in our setting for a group of nine children, aged nine months to four years. Some of the ideas worked straight away, while some needed practice, but the children enjoyed them all nonetheless. I also tried some of them out with a little girl who has cerebral palsy, and she loved them.

I am not musical, but this book gives good ideas and variations on well-known tunes, making the task of music sessions much easier. The author provides session planning sheets, assessment sheets and reference pages covering the Early Learning Goals and Stepping Stones. There is also a list of useful resources.

Overall, this is a great book for anyone working with young children and is a useful toll when working with children with SEN.