One of the best ideas I ‘ve ever tried was “Music Travelling”. It can work very well with preschoolers and primary school children and it promotes creative expression, self confidence, cooperation, geographical knowledge and respect of other cultures. It is also suitable for children with special needs.

All you need is a CD with music from different countries, a globe and any other material that you feel that children could use, like ribbons or a big piece of fabric and pictures of traditional instruments. The CD I have prepared contains music from China, India, Russia, Spain, Africa, Japan, South America, Greece and England.

So this is how we play the game. As children sit on their chairs we pretend they are on the airoplane. The globe turns around and we land for example on China, which is the destination for some ” passengers”( the children sitting on the left table). They have to get off the airoplane and visit the country, dance with the music the way they feel like or share with the rest of the class some knowledge they might have of this country.The rest of the class can help with this bit…The same continues with all the music. Ideally you can start and end the session with music from your own country.

In the end you can give them a piece of paper and ask them to make a picture of what they found most exciting from their travelling. As they draw you play the CD again.

Submitted by Kalliopi Charitaki