At Boogie Mites, our mission has always been to use the power of music to support children in early years and to close the attainment gap. In the current climate, we’ve found that many children have not had the support they need to get school ready, due to school and nursery closures.
We strive to support children from disadvantage circumstances in aspects such as literacy, which is a shared aim for Achievement For All (AFA). Therefore, we are happy to announce our support once again for their annual reading challenge.
Who are AFA?
AFA are a not-for-profit organisation who aim to improved outcomes for young people by working in partnership with early years settings, schools and colleges.
We have been working with AFA for several years, not only on the 200 million minutes challenge, last year AFA evaluated the impact of our School Ready Through Music Online Transition course.
What is the 200 Million Minutes Reading Challenge?
Whether you are an early years teacher, parent, carer, support worker or librarian you can join the challenge to help us achieve the target of reading 200 million minutes!
In 2020, our theme for the challenge was dinosaurs, unfortunately, this was interrupted by the pandemic, however, it was extended through to the summer term to encourage children to keep reading.
This year the 200 million minute challenge will be taking place between World Book Day (4th March) and Children’s Book Day (31st March), with our theme being Fairy Tales.
Boogie Mites’ supporting resources, feeding creativity and learning:
Our first song, Seven League Boots, transports you through Fairy Tale Land whilst we meet characters like the three little pigs, Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood.
– Seven League Boots uses creativity and imagination to entice involvement from the children, getting them to role-play the fairy tale characters. Fairy Tales have a pattern and rhythm that supports the development of children’s pre-reading skills.
– Extension activities can include craft, using fine motor skills to create pig, bear or wolf masks from paper plates, and gross motor skills to march around the garden looking for hidden fairy tale clues.
The second song, Let’s Tap A Word, can be linked to any book that you read together. The children pick out four words from the story and tap out the rhythms (syllables) with their junk percussion or tapping sticks.
– Let’s Tap A Word encourages children to remember words from a story, choosing some to tap out in the song. This develops children’s auditory discrimination skills as they practise breaking words into ‘big chunks’ (syllables).
– Extension activities include follow-the-leader body percussion routines that clap or stamp out the syllables of words or reading stories together and assigning actions for certain words. For example, every time the word Gruffalo is said in the story the children could stamp their feet 3 times and say Gruf- a- lo.
All of the above activities build sequencing, concentration and attention skills through the power of music and sound games, playing with stories and words in this way will make reading together a really enjoyable activity for all involved, while strengthening the children’s literacy foundations and love of reading ready for school.
Boogie Mites Director, Sue Newman, explains why you should sign up today and get involved in this global challenge:
What will you get?
– Instructor videos showcasing the most effective ways to lead the songs
– Teacher notes which introduce the songs and offer supporting craft activities
– Teaching tips for leading with a group
– Online MP3 of the songs
– Lyrics for the songs
Join the community and sign up now! Remember to tick the early years setting box. Once you have signed up, we will email you with access to your resources (be sure to check your junk folder).
You have between the 4th March – 31st March to register your reading minutes – good luck!
For enquires, email Sue Newman at [email protected]
