Song Bingo
Each year Ruth, our Head Teacher, sets all our settings a short summer challenge. This year the challenge focused on song and rhyme.
Our Summer Challenge is a well established, fun and friendly competition between the teams over the summer months. Each challenge encourages the teams to reflect on an area of their practice and inspires the practitioners to enhance their continued professional development.
Song and rhyme has always been central to our continuous provision at Willow Cottage. Ruth wanted to use this challenge to build practitioner confidence and develop further the use of songs and rhyme with the children over the summer.
The teams were each given a bingo card with a repertoire of different songs and rhymes. To complete the card a member of the setting’s management team needed to hear them singing or saying the song or rhyme. There were a variety of imaginative ways used to gain the attention of the office!
Each game of bingo could earn a team points. The team at each setting with the most points at the end of the month were the winners. Our Eynsham setting came up with the idea of awarding their teams with style points for original and interesting performances. This was subsequently adopted by the other settings as well.
Some of the teams used our eyLog communication system to create observations. There were Walkie Talkie performances and spontaneous recitations to name but a few.
Our children’s families were also encouraged to help their teams complete a bingo card by submitting songs and rhymes from home and submitting them via eyLog. It was lovely to be able to gain further insight into our families engaging in such a fun way with their children.
Understanding the full value of nursery rhymes and songs, opens up wonderful learning opportunities for our children and helps create a positive attitude towards language.
So why is singing nursery rhymes and songs important?
- Children can learn new words
- They develop non-verbal communications skills
- It aids early maths skills
- Children understand how words are formed
- They enable children to copy actions
- It boosts children’s language communication and literacy skills
- It helps develop children’s social skills
- Children learn about different beats and rhythms
It is so important that adults are confident when singing nursery rhymes and songs. It really supports a child’s learning. If adults are having fun, children are more likely to respond.
All-in-all, the teams and especially the children, had a great deal of fun during this year’s Summer Challenge. The new songs and rhymes we learned will continue to inspire us further in our day-to-day practice.
The winning teams at each setting were:
Bletchingdon’s Butterflies
Eynsham’s Butterflies
Farmoor’s Owls
Many congratulations to them all.
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