Establishing Routines & Loving My Learning

Here at Out of the Ark we strongly believe singing is not just for the school hall or music lesson (though it’s great in these places too of course)! We are passionate about the power of singing, and embedding songs throughout the curriculum and in every classroom in the school. Some of you may be familiar with our Singing School Project. One of the key findings from this report was that ‘integrating music right across the curriculum can result in improvement in almost all learning areas’.

Universal Access users will know that in your Words On Screen™ player, we have put together some eSongbook playlists – song lists around carefully chosen topics, to help you explore our extensive catalogue. To assist with embedding songs throughout the curriculum, you’ll find a ‘Loving My Learning’ playlist. Within this there are loads of songs full of brilliant facts for helping with many different subjects. Please note, our Universal Access offer has now ended, but you can still view our playlists here.
 

LOVING MY LEARNING

We all know that as we get older, it becomes more difficult to remember facts, dates, names and places etc. However, we can often remember lyrics to songs we learnt back in the day! The link between music and memory is well-proven, so what better way to remember facts than to sing about them? And not only that, it’s fun too!

There can be no doubt that one of a school’s main goals is to nurture their pupils’ love of learning. Songs such as I Like Books! or Writing! can help with this by providing a general introduction to literacy lessons or circle time, or just for a quick blast of positivity!

All children learn in different ways and for some, a tricky concept can be explained much more simply in a song. Younger children may find that the actions that go along with The Doubling Song (I’m Clever!) help embed their learning in maths:

Another way in which songs can make a powerful impact is in helping with school routines. Songs can help signal different parts of the day or even lesson, make tidying up quicker and more fun, or to influence the mood of the class. These types of songs are also a nice easy way for teachers who may be less confident with singing, to introduce singing into their classes. Our Establishing Routines playlist is a great starting point for this. Here you’ll find ‘Hello’ and ‘Goodbye’ songs for each morning and afternoon, a song for It’s Nearly Playtime, Let’s Be Quiet and even Bee-Bop-A-Loo to remind younger children about this important social skill! So instead of asking the children to line up to go out to play, just put on Line Up, Line Up. After a few repetitions you may be amazed at their response!