Child’s Play Music is permanently closed due to ill health, and we are no longer able to take bookings. We thank our many former clients for their support over the last 25 years.

What happens in a typical child care centre pre-kindergarten incursion?

Contact us today to book your incursion!

Every child will play with every instrument and we guarantee we can keep your children focused and learning for the whole program.

I set up all the drums and other un-tuned percussion up outside in your playground and the tuned instruments inside one of your rooms.

The child care centre program consists of two separate programs: a 25 minute program for children under 3 and a 50 minute program for children aged 3-5.  For pre-kindergartens the 50 minute program is used.

Most centres prefer to do the 25 minute under three’s program first.  Long experience tells me that your youngest children will get the most out of the program without an introduction from me.  We simply split the group, half to go outside to explore the drums, the other half inside with the melodic instruments and let them get straight into playing!

My job is to help the children to explore, to supervise, and to make sure every child is having the time of their lives!  I very briefly show how the weirder instruments can be played – your children will pick it up instantly.  That’s the power of play-based learning!

Children are free to move from instrument to instrument whenever they like, and there are far more instruments than children – no fuss, no problems about sharing.  No worries about children breaking instruments – they are almost unbreakable.

After 12 or so minutes we swap the groups over for a whole new set of challenges and instruments to explore.  Towards the end of this section I let the children know that we will be finishing soon, so the children are prepared.  They will be happy, satisfied and they will have learnt so much!

At the end of the short program I take 15 minutes to set the instruments back up and to prepare for your 3-5 year olds.

The 50 minute program for 3-5s and pre-kindergartens begins with a brief and entertaining introduction where I show how some of the instruments can be played, make an instrument from scratch in one minute (amazing!), and set some ground rules about sharing and behaviour.

Then I split the group, half to go outside to explore the drums and other un-tuned percussion, the other half inside with the melodic instruments.

This is pure free play!  Children can choose which instruments to play, how to play them, when to move to another instrument.  I’m going around helping kids explore, modelling playing techniques, answering questions and supervising their exploration. It’s loud, it’s fun and it’s totally hands-on!

After around 12 minutes we swap the groups over, for a whole new set of challenges and instruments to explore.  When the children have thoroughly explored all the instruments it’s time for more structured play and intentional teaching!

I bring all the children inside and conduct them as an orchestra – this is so much fun!  Starting and stopping, loud and quiet, getting louder (crescendo), & fast and slow.  The activities are play-based and designed so that even young threes will succeed.

Towards the end of this section I let the children know that we will be finishing soon, so the children are prepared.  They will be happy, satisfied and they will have learnt so much!

Free-flow programs for family days and celebrations.

Child’s Play Music is also perfect for your family day, fair day, or any centre celebration.  See our community events page for more information about our fantastic free-flow programs.