Educating Young Children Volume 2 - Summer 2026 July 1, 2026 | 6X. Sing It, Chant It, Play It

By Rebecca Anne Swartz and Kira Hamann

Incorporating Music Throughout the Learning Day

A playful, comprehensive early childhood curriculum should include music. Besides being important in its own right, making music and singing together are powerful ways to connect to others and share cultural knowledge and practices. Musical moments nurture creative expression and contribute to the well-being of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Music can also enrich children’s development and learning in other domains and content areas (see “Want to Learn More?” below).

Educators can use singing, chanting, and instrumental activities to support children across routines, transitions, and learning activities. Here, we offer six ways to integrate music into your setting. These suggestions grow out of our experiences as early childhood educators and teacher educators, as well as from the music that was shared with us over the years by our families, educators, mentors, and colleagues.

1. Use music to build relationships

Music is a dynamic way for children to learn about themselves and to build relationships with others through their creative expressions. This can begin by celebrating their names. Research has shown that one of the first words a child recognizes is their name, regardless of the languages they speak. Songs and chants that include opportunities to use individual names—such as “Hickety Pickety Bumble Bee” and “Willoughby Wallaby Woo”—provide playful ways to scaffold children’s language development, well-being, and sense of community.

Because children benefit from repeated interactions involving different forms of expression, we recommend that educators include singing and chanting throughout the day. In infant and toddler settings, this might look like using songs for everyday routines, such as “This Is the Way We Wash Our Hands” and its many versions (“This is the way we take a turn”; “This is the way we stack the blocks”). Older children can sing and chant as they gather into whole and small groups, singing “The More We Get Together” and “Hello, How Are You?” Educators can adapt songs like these to reflect and respond to children’s cultural contexts.

2. Honor children’s interests and experiences

Children’s participation increases when a subject interests them. This includes activities around music. For example, if the children in your setting are passionate about outer space, sing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” or “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon.” If you teach children who love animals, consider singing “Los Pollitos Dicen (The Little Chicks Say)” or “Going on a Bear Hunt.” If you teach infants, look for songs that elicit their delight. Focus on joint attention and connection: Infants express joy and show engagement when they babble, bounce to a beat, and make eye contact.

Families have a wealth of musical ideas and resources. You can work with them to further identify children’s interests and to incorporate the songs they sing at home. Ask what they listen to and sing with their children, then share that music in your setting. This is particularly helpful in supporting multilingual learners and children from diverse cultural backgrounds.

3. Use multiple modes

You can encourage creative expression and engagement from all children by introducing movement, objects, and visuals into music activities. Multiple modes also help children create stronger, more integrated memories.

Consider repurposing canisters and boxes into drums and shakers. With babies, you might use scarves to sing peekaboo songs. You could ask toddlers and older children to roll shaker eggs, tap sticks, or move scarves through the air as they sing songs like “Tap Your Sticks Together,” “The Itsy Bitsy Spider,” or “Pat-a-Cake.” Encourage children to sing and chant faster or slower, with bigger or smaller movements, or in wilder or calmer ways depending on their interests and needs.

You can ensure the participation of children with diverse abilities by changing the size of the materials you offer or the ways they are held. For example, you might add grips to rhythm sticks or provide differently shaped egg shakers so that each child can access the benefits of multimodal learning.

4. Plan for different content area connections

Children can use songs and chants that connect to foundational ideas and skills across the curriculum. For example,

·      “Icky Sticky Bubble Gum” and “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” benefit toddlers’ and preschoolers’ cognition and language skills as they learn to label their body parts and follow movement patterns.

·      “Five Little Ducks” and “Five Green and Speckled Frogs” help as they learn counting skills and develop number sense.

·      “Wheels on the Bus” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It” incorporate words that infants and toddlers are acquiring.

Along with fostering their abilities to communicate through music and movement, songs and chants can reinforce what children are learning during other parts of the day.

5. Incorporate different languages

Music can make connections to children’s homes, communities, and cultures. Songs and chants from many languages and countries—“Frère Jacques (Brother John),” “Jambo (Hello),” “Zhao Pengyou (Looking for a Friend),” “De Colores (All the Colors)”—expose both mono- and multilingual learners to new ideas, experiences, and vocabulary. You can use songs and chants from around the world for dancing, call-and-response activities, and greeting each other in different languages. Consider selecting a short, simple piece like Ella Jenkins’s “You’ll Sing a Song and I’ll Sing a Song” and asking families who speak different languages to translate it. Or invite families to teach a song from their cultures.

6. Take part in the fun yourself

Do not be afraid to sing or chant alongside the children in your setting. They will follow your lead. First, begin with the songs and chants you know from your childhood. Then expand your repertoire by accessing old CDs, records, and online sources. Consider the music you encounter carefully: Some songs live on forever; others do not age as well. Ask yourself what is most important in your context, then seek out songs that reflect the children and families you work with and that amplify the ideas and qualities you want children to experience. Be selective, and remember that music is dynamic and changing. If a song makes anyone in your community uncomfortable, find a new one.

Afraid you’re not singing perfectly in tune? Take a deep breath and do your best! Children won’t judge; they care more about the fun of singing and will be inspired to join in with your enthusiastic performance. Plus, you’ll become a stronger singer and chanter over time.

Now that you have some ideas, take a moment to review your learning space and your daily routines. Ask yourself, “When could I hum a little tune to foster children’s expression and well-being?” Soon, your setting will be filled with joyful song.

About the Authors

Rebecca Anne Swartz, PhD, is an associate professor and program director of the Early Childhood Education program at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville. She has been singing and playing her guitar with children, families, and teachers throughout her career. rswartz@gmail.com

Kira Hamann, EdD, is an associate professor of early childhood education at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville in Illinois. She is a former pre-K teacher who sang and chanted through play every day and still does with educators today.

Photograph: courtesy of Howard Ash. Copyright © 2026 by the National Association for the Education of Young Children. See permissions and reprints online at NAEYC.org/resources/permissions.