Hello again! It’s a good thing there is aircon in the rhythmics room because it is hot hot hot in Tokyo this summer! Well, every summer!

I always like to link some activities in my rhythmics sessions to the world around us and reflect the changes in the seasons. Most education models do this and parents/guardians do this naturally by pointing out what’s new and what’s changed in baby’s environment. So it’s time for summer fun! But summer in Japan is different to summer in my home country of the UK. So when looking for appropriate songs in English/languages other than Japanese and for summer activities whilst planning my August sessions, it has interested me to see the different cultural meanings and the different sound world the season has depending on each country and culture. For instance, the sound of a Japanese summer is one filled with festival hayashi music, the whirring and buzzing sound of cicadas and the bang and crackle of fireworks. A very different sonic landscape to that in the UK! I remember being surprised when I learnt summer was firework season in Japan; in summer in the UK, the sun doesn’t set until around 10pm so there is no point in doing fireworks! Fireworks in the UK are held at New Years and on November 5^th (Bonfire Night) so fireworks are synonymous with winter to me.

To celebrate summer fireworks, we explored the sounds of fireworks and then becoming fireworks ourselves! We listened to sound effects of various fireworks and then created our own explosion sounds on the floor tom drum and the whizzing ‘pyuuuuu’ rocket sounds with ascending and descending pitches. We then made this into a little piece of music on the drum and flute (me playing the whizzing rocket sounds and the children taking it turns to play the ‘bang’ on the drum). When the children heard the ‘bang’ they would stretch their arms out and jump up/be lifted up by their parents to ‘explode’. When they heard the whizz of the rocket, parents lifted babies up and over or children waved the scarf following the melody. We then had fun making our own firework picture too whilst listening to firework-inspired music. I try to include simple crafts and art from as early as possible, giving babies a sensory experience and chance to explore making something (all great for spatial and construction awareness and creative development) so I drew circles and spirals of colour in pastels on black card and invited the babies and children to smudge them outwards (with a ‘pyuu’ sound effect!) to make it look like they had exploded in the night sky. 

It made me think more about children’s music and rhymes how they are inherently linked to the environment and culture we are brought up in. In November, I will teach the children a rhyme from the UK about Bonfire Night so they can learn how a different culture enjoys a common activity – watching firework displays in coats, hats and gloves rather than yukatas and sandals