Music is one of the most influential ways for a child to access, engage with and express their unique selves. It forms a core part of the early childhood curriculum, and is essential to language and brain development in the early years.  

Music Plays a Powerful Role in Building Connections 

Music can help build a child’s social connections, including with mum, dad, and the whānau. For babies, it can often be the starting point of their connection with mum, from hearing her voice sing to them while in the womb.  

As well as strengthening social connections, music helps nurture the connections that are part of early development. It stimulates brain activity and helps build the foundation of many early numeracy and early literacy skills.  

At New Shoots Tauriko, music is often the starting point for our kaiako to build a relationship with tamariki. We invite whānau to share their child’s favourite song as a way to connect and support them in their settling visits. This is a simple way of creating familiarity in the unknown, and can be a source of comfort for the child in a new environment. Sharing favourite music helps build a sense of belonging and strengthens the bridge between home and centre. 

Music also holds a special place in mat times, creating rituals and routines for children to express themselves in a joyful and fun way. Whether it’s through a shared favourite song, or a silly dance routine, music enables tamariki to connect socially with their peers. 

Harnessing the Benefits of Music at New Shoots 

Music is used both intentionally and spontaneously throughout the day, as part of connection building with tamariki at our centre.  

Kaiako use music to set the scene, with soft tunes playing in the background when tamariki arrive. This helps create a feeling of warmth and home as they settle in for the day. Music is further used to comfort during care moments, with our infant teachers humming gentle lullabies to help settle and relax babies into sleep. 

There are so many benefits of music and so many ways it can be explored in early childhood education—be it through those quiet, intimate moments, or more explicitly during exploration with instruments and song. Our tamariki love to have shared dance parties out on the deck and will often request their favourite song to listen to. We use action and movement songs to get our wiggles out, and we love to play games of “the floor is lava” in our beautifully designed outdoor play space.  

More recently, our toddlers have really been enjoying the sing-a-long books. One of our just-turned-two year olds had been asking for a week or so for a train book, and none of our teaching team could figure out which one he was asking for. During a quiet afternoon, I grabbed our big sing-a-long books down and one of them happened to be “Down by the Station.” The look of joy on his face told me everything: this was the book he had been asking for! Finally, we had met his request and he was over the moon. As any parent would understand, we then sang the book 10 times or more in a row.  

Sharing an Enduring and Universal Joy  

Music has always been something I love to share with tamariki. I find myself instantly relaxing as I sing along to stories and songs alongside them. There’s something special about the way music invites children to let go of inhibitions—at the first sound of a beat, their natural, innate joy for movement and dance shines through! 

By bringing familiar sounds, languages, and traditions into our learning environment, music also connects us to whānau and culture. When children hear and share music from home, they feel seen, valued, and deeply connected.   

Music has a magical ability to spark feelings of joy in all of us. It is a source of delight for children, enabling them to discover a love of learning, reading, listening and connecting.  

Learning Through Music and Play

Your child’s teacher is always happy to hear about the songs, stories, rhythms, and music your child enjoys at home. Sharing these familiar sounds with us helps strengthen the connection between home and centre, and gives tamariki more opportunities to feel seen, settled, and connected.

Together, we can celebrate the joy, creativity, and learning that music brings to everyday play.

Written by Amber Pates – Our Centre Director at New Shoots Tauriko. You can read more about Amber here.

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