Songo

Meet Songo. Songo loves to sing and dance and is here to share words and music with you. Twenty wonderful songs in this beautifully designed book and CD taking your child on a magical journey. Discover their voice, the power of words and communication through music.

Songo was the creative idea of Mauricio Vengas-Astroga & Rachel Pantin. Mauricio and Rachel work as part of a larger organisation called Musiko Musika, who aim to bring the,

“wonderfulness and remarkable diversity of the worlds cultures to London…We do this by working with children, young people and families, and the schools, children’s centres, nurseries, communities in which they live, with arts and community venues large and small, festivals, music education hubs and universities to create unique and outstanding music and cultural projects that celebrate what we have in common as human beings, give a voice to individuals and improve our everyday lives.”
– description taken from Musiko Musika home page.  (Check the link to see the full version of Musiko Musika aims)

As well as bringing culture from round the world to children and familes, Mauricio and Rachel wanted to also help the children develope their language skills. This is where Songo comes to play! With beautifully written songs all tailored especially for early learning development of lanuage! Great for all the family or early learners to enjoy, catchy simple and bound to make you smile. The colourful drawings designed by Fiona Zechmeister really help bring Songo to life, and will inspire your kids!

The book is also now being used in collaboration from speech-language specialist Helen Ayres. Here is her high praise for the books;

‘Fun and really creative, and very effective in developing early speech and language skills’ – speech-language specialist Helen Ayres

Sing and Learn

Sing and Learn is a unique program designed by the people at Musiko Musika – “…using songs, rhythmic games and other musical and linguistics activities to enable the development of strong speech and language skills and other areas of the curriculum through music from early years upwards. More than 150 teachers and early years practitioners have been trained in the UK and Chile to deliver the programme.” Tailored workshops that use Songo to engage the children.  With plenty of early learning resources on Musiko Musika’s website for you to use. They have also created a collection of short videos and downlaodable information sheets, that you can use along with your own Songo book.

Songo is also deisgned to be used in many early years settings, including family life, nurseries or playgroups and can be used by parents, teachers and practitioners alike!

This book and CD is a unique resource for early years settings, practitioners and musicians specialising in early years to support the development of children’s speech and language skills through music. With 20 original songs, all highly accessible and engaging for children and adults alike, the book has clearly structured guidance on activities to develop communication and language, musical skills and other key learning areas. It links with the National Curriculum’s Early Learning Goals and other internationally recognised early years approaches and can be integrated easily into daily routines of your setting or nursery.

 Musiko Musika even have their own Youtube channel, full of music with Songo and other brilliant videos.