© Rainbows and Sunshine 2019. All Rights Reserved.
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As children continue to develop and grow, for example in the areas of cognition, co-ordination, comprehension, sense of humour, and language skills, you can take music to another level again! Below are lots of children’s music activities, especially for those 4 to 7 years. It’s fun to ask children to contribute to the words of a song and fill in the blanks for example. This encourages their creativity. Social skills are more developed too and so they enjoy group songs and musical activities. Make the most of children visitors to your home to involve everyone in some group music – it’s a lot of fun. They and you can have enjoyment singing with some musical instruments, even impromptu ones made from things found in the house, to form a band. They still love to have you join in the music activities too!
Using the “Black and White Cow” Book, Song, 2 x Animation Videos, and toy with 4 to 7 Year-Olds
Children in this age group see different humour to toddlers when they experience animated videos, songs and song books such as “Black and White Cow” and really enjoy picture books with matching songs as they follow along! This song and story are valuable for developing and using memory skills because of the fun cumulative nature of the words – itchy, munchy, dirty etc.
Encourage children to develop the skill of memorising the order of the words. You can also ask “What other animals did you see in the book, what sort of things happened to the cow, what came after the mosquito, or what came after the part where it said she had a big voice.” Because it’s a cumulative word story it’s fun for the children to guess what comes next, before you turn the page!
The cow in this video has lots of personality and has lots of little challenges in her life – and despite them all she is still a happy and contented cow! There is a subtle message in there! This can also open a discussion with your child that explores their emotions.
The book is colourful and has beautiful, thick pages (but is not a board book). You can talk about the shapes, colours, animals and adventures on each page, explore the concepts such as why she was itchy, and actively involve your child in the experience. Some parents like to read through the whole story first then they go back and do these interactive activities on each page straight after. The song which comes with the book can be played while you turn the pages – it’s even better if you both sing along! There are sequential learning opportunities with our products that are designed to combine “hands on” play and learn experiences with the expectations and realities of today’s families…videos. And so there are 2 animation videos which bring the book to life!
These videos encourage skills of following cues, music, language and speech, imagination, creativity and story-telling through interactive involvement, and the senses of sight, hearing, movement, and kinaesthetic development – learning through following cues and instructions, and doing. Our soft plush cow is much loved by kids (and many adults!) and can be combined into the reading, singing, or video experiences using kids’ imagination and creativity. For example, kids can re-create the story using the toy.
The singalong version of the 3D animated video has the lyrics on-screen and is great for children who can read, are learning to read or who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Each product is available individually or as a complete “Signature Set” – 6 Product Black and White Cow Set
Using the “Toodle Toodely Doo” Book, Song, 2 x 3D Animated Videos, and Finger Puppets
This second “Signature Set” has a 24 page colourful book with the song included so the book can be read or sung with. There are lots of things you can discuss with this story as the children bring the animals into their house and playground, limited only by their (and your) creativity and imagination! For example…Can you stand like the duck in this picture? How do you think he would move? How many colours can you see? (Ask them to name them as they count them). There are some funny shapes in this book – what can you find? Can you say the words in the book that mean “hello” in other languages? How many things can you see on….. (for example, the wall or the shelf), or peeking out of the house?
4 to 7 year olds love to do the actions that go with this one! The children characters do the actions in the video and so it’s easy to copy them – it’s also such a catchy, memorable song! The animal characters teach children how to say “hello” in different languages so it’s a great educational opportunity for them to learn in an engaging and interactive way. There are versions for Australian/New Zealand children (the sheep says the Maori word for “Kia Ora”) and an international version which uses “Hola” instead.
High quality, colourful finger puppets match the animal characters develop children’s imagination, creative play, language skills, story-telling, social interaction, fine and gross motor skills, kinaesthetic skills and facilitating the tactile senses. The animals are: duck, frog, fish, sheep, panda and cow. Encourage your kids to use the puppets while the story is being sung or read, or while they watch the video, or re-create the story themselves later with the animal finger puppets!
Again, everything can be purchased separately, or together as a complete “Signature Set” – 11 Product Toodle Toodely Doo Set
With this diverse and development-led approach the product grows with the child, and takes the familiar to new experiences and introduces new skills, learning through play. This brings the many benefits of introducing new sensory involvement, expanding their brain development, building confidence, and introducing or expanding existing skills.
And there are enormous kinaesthetic learning opportunities as the children learn through the process of doing, at every step of the way, and at each developmental stage. Parents or carers also have the resources on how to integrate each of these items within the product set in a fun way, and to maximise the learning opportunity and the child’s developmental potential.
Our range is very special because it combines both actual “touch and feel” or “hands-on” kid’s product with matching digital product, and because it can be used at many developmental stages. And, importantly, it is this integration of matching and complementing material that draws on every sensory experience in the child. Because it capitalises on all forms of traditional or “hands-on” ‘play and learn’ material together with digital ‘play and learn’ media, it’s a relevant, meaningful combination at many levels for today’s child.
Everything is designed for the child to grow with this fun-based sequential learning using the multi-sensory, matching themed product, introduced at the appropriate developmental stage. The combination of the hands-on product, integrated with digital product, means that children can explore their own creativity and imagination for ongoing brain stimulation, develop the varied senses and build neural pathways for cognition. This is a full integration of how a child can play and learn with a product using all forms of media – something that is relevant to families today. It’s a reality for most families to play videos to their kids in this age group and this sequential introduction of hands-on and tactile products is development led.
It brings “traditional” play products such as books, interactive songs and experiential toys into the digital age through an integration of tangible products and complementing digital material. It is this combination that reflects current relevance, and the expectations and reality of parents and children today. It is an all-round, multi-faceted, diverse media, total sensory awareness approach.
“Your Clothes” 3D Animated Videos and Song
Fast and funny song about the possibilities of where clothes could be worn! Featuring a cute monkey band this song is great for “play acting” and expanding on the concept of where clothes could go! It appeals to kids’ senses of humour. Fun one to do for children’s concerts and performances…. just remember to ask us please (we rarely so “no” but like to comply with copyright regulations!) The fun song and videos are on our website at “Your Clothes” and our YouTube channel.
“Beep Jeep” – Animation Videos and Song
This rock song, released in March 2018 as a 3D animated video, is one of the most imagination-creative of our songs. Beep Jeep gets feet instead of wheels, beach balls for mirrors, an umbrella for a roof, and a donut for a steering wheel. We love for children to hear this as an audio and build a picture in their mind of what this jeep might look like. It’s great to have them draw a picture of what they think Beep Jeep looks like at the end, before they see the video! Such a fun song-story! And so good for developing that artistic creative side in children. Kids love to draw their version of Beep Jeep too. You can find the song also, and this video, on our website at “Beep Jeep” and our YouTube channel
“Five Green Monkeys” 3D Animated Videos and Song
Entertaining to watch and lots of detail for visual tracking, it’s Caribbean style music – yet another in our varied music genres designed to educate children in diversity of music styles! This is designed to be a counting song for the very littles, and a visual lesson in addition and subtraction for those a little older. This video is on our website at “Five Green Monkeys” and our YouTube channel.
This is a fabulous activity dance for 4 to 7 year olds! It moves really quickly and children need to concentrate to follow the directions – great for building concentration, cognition, language, processing, co-ordination, etc. and is just all-round fun to do! Also a fabulous “performance or concert” piece for productions – we will usually give permission to use, but do please ask! See it at “The Alphabet Dance” and our YouTube channel.
Not your usual song… this one has lots of extra verses and tells the tale of Incy who wears a yellow cap and sunglasses. Incy is very cheeky with his comments throughout the song and has a great sense of humour which 4 to 7 year olds really appreciate! Great to make up actions to go with the story-song too.
Learning to count in THOUSANDS and learning about musical instruments at the same time! We count down from 10,000 to 9,000, 8,000 etc. until there were no more men and he was the only one going up and down the hill. Older kids love the concept of this.
It’s also a fantastic educational experience featuring solo musical instruments, with a brief description of each as well. Children can march to the beat of this catchy arrangement, imitate the playing of the instruments, and learn at the same time. Encourage their imagination and creativity with this one!
An imaginative song with an unusual and captivating musical arrangement again to keep a wide diversity of musical genres happening with our arrangements! This is a great song-story for children to build pictures in their imagination of what is happening….wonderful for the auditory senses both musically and also for creating this picture in their mind of what’s happening as the frog goes in search of other animals. Ask the children to listen carefully for the ending and see if they can imitate what the wide-mouth frog might look like! Children can “play act” this song too.
A little secret….. we’ve heard from lots of adults about how much they love this song too!
“Old MacDonald Had a Farm” and “Row Row Row Your Boat”
Both of these songs are sophisticated and interesting musical arrangements – we certainly like to create great listening experiences for children! For little ones they are easy to sing along with, and copy, and the storylines have a twist at the end which really appeals to the older children! These songs encourage imagination, interactive and engaging involvement, auditory awareness and can easily have actions done with them. Try a “do-si-do” dance, or knee slapping hoe-down actions with the children during parts of “Old MacDonald” – great for co-ordination! Row Row Row Your Boat has our signature extra verses featuring the Rainbows and Sunshine animals who appear in other songs and videos too.
“The Wheels on the Bus” and “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”
Children’s favourites that are easily recognised. Our unique arrangements make for quality and interesting listening and involvement for this age group and Twinkle has new verses involving the sun, the moon, a satellite and a rocket ship. Encourage children to add their own verses onto both of these songs and develop their creativity through movement to the lyrics. Also, really good listening experiences and we’ve had a lot of feedback about Twinkle as a popular and beautiful lullaby for sleep-time!
Our extensive range of fun learning children’s products can be seen all together HERE! They are produced for multi-level appeal with something in them for a wide range of age-groups.
© Rainbows and Sunshine 2019. All Rights Reserved.
Made with ❤ on the Gold Coast | eWebDesigns