Early Years education: Training and resources

Emma Hutchinson
Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Emma Hutchinson, founder of Music House for Children, gives an overview of training and resources for the elementary stages.

Training

If you are looking to hone your skills and resources for when working with young children, there is a huge range of digital and practical training courses on offer. A rule of thumb, before committing precious finances, is to investigate whether the trainers or course creators come from 1) an Early Years music background, 2) a background in music education, and 3) an organisation committed to developing musical outcomes.

Be cautious of businesses leaping on the musical band-wagon, with ‘Save your children through music’, ‘Be part of the Mozart effect’ and so forth. Consider what you want for your professional self as well as what you want young children to achieve. Becoming an Early Years music specialist requires proper investment, time and experience.

Courses range from the excellent Certificate for Music Educators (Early Childhood) to shorter courses with activities, resources and guidance, such as those run by the CPD Certification Service or Music House for Children (MHC). Choosing depends on available budget, professional recommendation and the degree to which you want to be an informed Early Years educator.

Independent trainers are also worth investigating since they offer, through practice and passion, a way of synergising with your own style of delivery. More academically-minded readers may question online and franchised courses; however, if you stick to the rule of thumb described above, success awaits.

As with all educational training, resources and musical ideas, the most significant ingredient is you. A genuine love for the 0–5 years and a passion for investing in, honing and sharing your skills will nurture musical outcomes.

Instruments

Sound quality is everything. Given our children's intrinsic musicality, they deserve more than poor-quality instruments. Cost should not be a barrier to collecting quality instruments over time. If you are stuck with substandard ones, consider other skills that can be developed, such as turn-taking, call and response and body percussion.

Synthetic

Plastic and synthetic is not all bad. The ‘gathering’ drums by REMO have a durable and resonant synthetic skin and are easy to store. Children can interact with exploratory sound play, develop motor-skills, play together, turn-take and engage in percussion compositions. Xylophones distributed by LMS retain their pitch and durability; the beautiful synthetic wood bars are fabulous for playing simple canons. Metal instruments should be steel or bronze, since the cheaper chrome can sound dull and uninspiring. Instruments such as cabasas, triangles, agogos are pricey but provide rich texture.

Ethnic

A huge choice of ethnic and bespoke wooden instruments is available from shops and online. Well-crafted wooden instruments are ideal as these resonate well, allow sound waves to breath, and can expand and contract. Drums for Schools were early adopters of nursery-sized instruments (1997) and have adapted full-size djembes, maracas, rainmakers, shakers, chime bars, claves, guiros and even beaters. Thanks to a collaboration between Drums for Schools, MHC and freelance educators, specially crafted instruments – durable, tactile and notable for their sound – for younger ages are now available online. Knock on Wood is another good supplier and well worth a look. Yes, instruments do break, but making a good start by investing well and encouraging respectful care does wonders.

Tuned and blown

Chimes are another glorious natural sound, which creates colour in composition and stories. Wind instruments such as ocarinas, fifes and train-whistles require additional support and cleaning, but are a valuable tool. Untuned percussion instruments are arguably the best sociable instruments in which groups can explore sound-play, composition and shared musical play. Tuned instruments hold a mighty place in Early Years but should be used in mostly melodic settings.

Homemade

DIY instruments carry great integrity in personal achievement and pride. Creating instruments from different materials provides multi-curricula opportunities and opens pathways for immersive music-making across the nursery.

Teaching resources

What can we teach our toddlers and children with or without instruments? A little mantra to remember is ‘less is more’. Time and again, I have observed nursery music classes of 30 minutes with 15 songs, and activities piled high with resources, leading to a rushed experience. Think about what you are teaching, why you are teaching this and who it is for. Enabling musical play is as much about child initiation as what you offer. Have a look at some brilliant ideas from Lucinda Geoghegan's books for the National Youth Choir of Scotland (NYCOS). Other resources are available from the organisations Sing Up and Music Mark.

Songs and rhymes

One carefully chosen song can be a flexible gem for several age-groups. In Early Years, awakening and learning with all the senses together is everything. Know your age-group's multisensory abilities, decide on your musical objective, and appreciate and challenge the children's imagination and intent. ‘Walking in the Rain’ (see link below) is a good example of a song that's suitable for all the age-groups.

With topic-based songs and rhymes, a maximum of two resources (more if the focus is on instruments or soundscapes) will provide pathways to composition. The song ‘Walking in the Rain’ can involve space markers (fake grass, gym bollards) and a bungee chord (a colourful circle of elasticated fabric) for circle games and musical stories.

Other supporting resources can include pop-up puppets, fabric (scarves/silk, ribbons, lycra, chiffon), bubbles, outdoor materials (leaves, synthetic grass patches), visual/flash cards, musical magnet-boards, paper plates, paper flowers and bean bags. Remember that resources are only a prop, to ignite the children's imagination and musical learning. With careful planning, a few relevant materials will keep your bag light and enable simultaneous musical play and learning.

Lesson plans

Behind every good music educator is training and practical experience. But what of your musical objectives for sessions? What do you want to teach (singing, moving to the beat, listening, turn-taking, composition)?

In Early Years, there are two main approaches to teaching music: immersive musical learning throughout the day, and structured time-fixed lessons. Focusing on one activity, such as singing, reduces socio-educational opportunities. Music has multiple learning strands including physical (playing, moving to music), sound (singing, language), listening (analysing, appraising), composition (motifs, harmony), beginnings or endings, and tactile (instruments, props). It's as well, then, to have lesson plans or a module-based framework for inserting activities; for template ideas, follow the links opposite.

Technology for tots

Our young emerging digital generation will be streets ahead of most educators by the time it reaches primary school. It makes sense, therefore, to embrace technology as part of their creative lives. Educators should embrace digital music and the apps found on educationalappstore.com, for example. But consider also why and how your digital content supports musical learning. Immerse it in performance, composition, playing along, and adopt it as part of a wider toolkit.

There are some great products, such as the Ankuka mic, which support child-initiated music-making. Language-delayed children respond incredibly well when vocalising using mics. Apps are another huge technological resource used skilfully by pre-schoolers. I recently observed a 5-year-old creating a video complete with sound, visuals and vocals in a matter of minutes.

A Bluetooth speaker is worth its weight in gold. Use your skills as a music educator to determine a musical objective rather than simply responding to what's coming through the speaker. Background music may be calming, but it isn't necessarily the children's choice and, as audio wallpaper, can end up being ignored.

Whiteboards are a permanent fixture in most nursery schools. Try to immerse musical objectives through the visuals in these ‘digital walls’, not least to encourage alternatives to branded YouTube song-reels. Flash cards for topics, animals, notation and musical terms (e.g. dynamics) all look fabulous when digitised and displayed on-screen. It gives your teaching a new dimension, while freeing up your hands and lightening your backpack. Just think of the musical outcomes you can achieve with audio/visual stories and the pause button.