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.

Incorporate different languages

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.

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.

30 Educating Young Children

Summer 2026