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SharED Melodies

a project with songs, games, dances, stories and online/offline coding activities for children.

Shared Melodies began in public preschool in the suburbs of Istanbul, Turkey. By this work we noticed that children love singing and easily learn with songs. As teachers, we sense that 80% of a person's mental capacity occurs before the age of six. Thus we selected some kids songs in Turkish and English with the same melodies then started to sing with our pupils...

Overview

Information on this page is provided by the innovator and has not been evaluated by HundrED.

Web presence

2016

Established

1K

Children

1

Countries
Target group
All
Updated
December 2021
If all we do is teach our children what we know, they might remember enough to follow in our footsteps; but if we teach them how to learn, they can go anywhere they want.

About the innovation

English for Kids

English is a global language. With more than 350 million people around the world speaking English as a first language and more than 430 million speaking it as a second language, there are English speakers in most countries around the world. However this proficiency in Turkey is very poor. English Proficiency Index (EPI) shows that Turkey is among 60 countries as of 41st in the list. The average of TOEFL is 75 over 120. Communication in English is seen as a difficult issue by Turkish people. Most of them who attended courses and even sertificated as upperinter are still complaining about this unskilled situation.

In Turkey, students are introduced with English lessons when they are 8-9 years old in public schools nearly one and a half hour in a week. Total refers to nearly 60 hours throughout schoolyear and mostly based on grammar practices. Because of this situation we would like to practise a project in preschool to familiarize kids with the new languages specifically English. Then, Shared Melodies began in public preschool in the suburbs of Istanbul, Turkey. As teachers, we noticed that children love singing and easily learn with songs. We selected some songs in Turkish and English with the same melodies then started to sing these songs.. Because singing gets pupils to overcome their shyness, helps them in other areas not just music but science and maths and literacy skills also helps them improve their confidence, leadership and teamwork skills..

In order to spread the positive effects of this method last year we expanded framework of the project with games and cultural activities of the project then we enlarged its frame into the primary schools. We added new ideas according to selected songs like dances, games, stories and online/offline coding activities for children.
Thanks to this small project we observed that the children can learn with fun, the teachers want to overcome the barriers about the use of foreign language, the project can be a motivation source for the teachers' language learning and the parent appreciation in their children cognitive and affective skills' improvement.

Until this time we have sung kids songs together with the participation of 16 teachers from 10 different countries and more than 500 children. Since September 2018 we have been acting as an ambassador to spread the information about innovative ideas for English learning for kids via social media. We believe that spreading such ideas worth will open new doors for pupils' own rooms. Because we know that all activities mentioned above are the part of the universal language and we believe that children have right to learn to speak this language in order to learn they can go anywhere they want.

Thanks!


Implementation steps

Rhythm & Lyrics Selection

Sing songs with your pupils and encourage them to sing along with you. Play their favorite songs and music in the classroom or outside regularly. They may eventually start singing along by themselves. This activity helps promote memory and word identification.

This project can be applied within one semester or its frame can be expanded into two semesters by adding new songs and classroom activities which are compatible and harmonies with selected songs.

Our selected songs advised in pdf is appropriate for one semester curricula.

Classroom Activities

In this step you can add specific classroom activities like playing, sounding, counting, coloring, drawing, dancing applicable in the preschool or primary classrooms with learners aged 4-7. Find resources by this level on Super Simple Learning & Khan Academy Kids Appl. in A-Z list.

In the classrooms teacher can practise the alphabet, counting, animals, shapes and colors.. also coloring activities can be applied to these themes.

Here is an example of an easy game to help the child learn the letters:

Cut out individual squares that feature each letter of the alphabet written in bright colors. Mix them up and tape them on various surfaces in the classroom or outside. Go through the alphabet with the child and encourage him to search around to find the next letter and tape it to the wall in order. When finished, leave the alphabet letters in order up on the wall until you’re ready to play the game again. This game can be applied to other practices..

For our selected activities you can check the file attached.

Classroom Enrichment

For each of the selected songs it is possible to produce the following resources/materials:


  • A video of children and young people performing the song.

  • A video of the words of the song being spoken.

  • An audio track of the performance of the song.

  • A song sheet containing the lyrics of the song.

  • A music sheet with the musical score.

  • A set of instrumental audio learning tracks.

Collaboration With Parents

The role of a parent is so important to a child’s development. Parents can encourage their children’s cognitive development in the areas of memory, concentration, attention and perception by incorporating simple activities into their everyday routine. However in some cases they are not able to do that. Language learning process is an example for one of these cases. Thus the teachers in this project guide and support parents for structuring the daily and weekly routine activities..

Join The eTwinning Community

eTwinning is the community for schools in Europe.

It offers a platform for staff (teachers, head teachers, librarians, etc.), working in a school in one of the European countries involved, to communicate, collaborate, develop projects, share and, in short, feel and be part of the most exciting learning community in Europe.

Since 2016 we have been in the platform with Shared Melodies. You can either join us or create your own network in this gorgeous platform.

Co-Create and Help Spread the Message

If you like singing kids songs and if you are passionate about child development you can spread the message including with the voluntary mentoring in the schools.

Spread of the innovation

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