FAQs

Sing & Play is a weekly ‘fun mum-run music and movement group’ for babies, toddlers and their caregivers that takes place every Friday 1-2pm at Hawkinge Community Centre.

Sing & Play began on May 17th 2024 and has run every week since, providing the much-needed musical activity and social support of which we had been deprived when Hawkinge Children’s Centre sadly closed.

When I found out Hawkinge Children’s Centre (HCC) was closing, myself and many other families were devastated as we were about to lose an invaluable resource for both our children and ourselves as their caregivers. HCC was the source of free early years groups, providing accessible activities for the children to explore and much-appreciated support and socialisation for the families. Ahead of HCC closing, the linked local children’s centres (Folkestone) axed their extremely popular music and movement classes, meaning there were now no free music and movement classes offered in the area.

As a result of this, for the last few weeks of HCC being open, I began planning a music and movement group of my own that could be accessible to everyone - just like the centre’s groups. HCC were completely on board with this and donated 70 children’s percussion instruments amongst other things!

I wanted the group to be completely free so those that cannot afford the luxury of paid groups are not missing out. However I couldn’t find a venue that were willing to forgo their hire fee and I couldn’t afford to pay it all every week myself, so it is run on a donation basis.

Welcome

After signing in, children and carers can make their way to the toy area to play while they wait for the session to start. Every session begins with a warm welcome and our Hello song. This is one of our set songs which is easily recognisable and anticipated by the children. Each child gets their own individual welcome with their own name, introducing everyone and allowing them to get comfortable and settle in. This gives every child their spotlight and engages the children’s communication and social skills.

Nursery Rhyme Bag

Following the welcoming song, we begin our nursery rhyme activity. A bag full of objects is passed around the circle, with each child encouraged to choose their own prop from the bag. Depending on the chosen prop, the group will sing a corresponding nursery rhyme together(eg. wooden bobbin = wind the bobbin up, star = twinkle twinkle, etc). Many of the songs include their own actions that children come to recognise and anticipate. This activity enables choice and engages motor skills, communication and language development in a fun way for the children. Caregiver confidence can be built here, as the activity uses easy and well-known songs for a gradual ease into the session.

Movement

After tidying away all of the nursery rhyme props, the movement segment of the session can begin. There is at least one of each of these three song categories of movement songs included in this section:

• Action Songs - hand movement, sitting down - eg. wind the bobbin up, wheels on the bus

• Lifting Songs - lifting/bouncing child, sitting down/standing - eg. Pop! goes the weasel, I’m a little teapot

• Marching Songs - stood moving around - standing/marching - eg. Grand Old Duke of York, Hokey Cokey

Percussive Play Break

Ten minutes are allotted for the percussive play break, in which caregivers are encouraged to socialise while their little ones explore sounds with their percussive instruments. This is a brilliant opportunity for the adults to forge connections with others in similar situations, as the children work on their music-making, sound-tracking and co-ordination skills.

During this time, the facilitator prepares the equipment and setting for the second half, before ending the break with a ‘tidy up’ song, prompting the children and their caregivers to tidy up.

Parachute

Once the area is clear, the parachute is taken out and handles are passed around as the parachute song (All the colours over you) is sung. This segment is full of fun under and around the parachute with songs, whilst caregivers shake and lift the parachute. These songs usually include: all the colours over you, rain is falling, here we go up and 10 little bubbles.

Sensory Wind-Down

With relaxing music playing from the speaker, sensory scarves are distributed to every child and the bubble machines are fired up. For five minutes, babies and children enjoy unwinding with the flowing material under a sea of bubbles.

Bubbles provide many benefits for babies and children, including:

• Sensory exploration

• Fine motor skills development

• Language and communication

• Emotional regulation

Goodbye

Using the same tune as the “hello” song, every child around the circle receives their own personal salutation and sticker, as we sing the “goodbye” song.

Benefits for children

The activities included in Sing & Play are carefully and mindfully selected to be fun, whilst also introducing and engaging vital skills for child development in the early years. A few of these skills are listed below:

• Social Skills

• Communication & Language Development

• Motor Skills

• Wellbeing

• Emotional Regulation

• Bonding

• Learning

• Pre-Literacy skills (including prediction, anticipation, rhyming awareness, recognising and joining in with familiar songs and rhymes)

An example of these beneficial activities can be found in the first song of every session - the “Hello” song. As this song is sung, welcoming everyone to the group and signalling the start of the session, each child comes to anticipate their personal verse recognising and reacting to their own name. This set song becomes routine, working on personal, social and communication skills along with the more specific waving and use of the word “hello”. More generally, this singing activity can benefit language development, motor skills, social and communication skills, general wellbeing and bonding with both the caregiver and other children.

Benefits for adults

Groups like Sing & Play can be invaluable for not only the children, but also their caregivers. Watching, engaging and bonding with your child as they enjoy the musical activities, especially knowing they are also learning, may be reward enough. However, adults can also benefit through the social aspects of the group: forging connections, finding support and avoiding the isolation that can sometimes shroud parenthood.

We use BSL (British Sign Language) signs with an SSE (Sign Supported English) grammatical structure to support pre-lingual and developing communication.

BSL is its own language with a unique grammatical structure. For example:

• English: What is your name?

• BSL: You name what?

While BSL doesn’t have a sign for every English word, it offers signs to communicate almost anything.

In SSE, signs accompany speech rather than replace it. Signs follow the flow of spoken English, and not every word is signed. This approach helps children and caregivers integrate signs naturally into communication.

For more information on signing at Sing & Play, please visit our page on signing.