if you want any help just write to me :)

Hi Alexi! I can gladly scan some pages, please send me your contact information if that's acceptable to you. Also, for the songs, definitely avoid instruments, a rousing round of hokey pokey is not something you want to bring a violin into - all the examples cited you can do without instruments, just voice. :) Start with warm up exercises to get them focused, and then sing a 'target' note together. Remember that kids' voices are higher, so the target note should be higher than whatever your range is, unless you're a countertenor. And speak through the words of the phrase first to help them get the pronunciation - and then bring in the music, phrase by phrase. Keep up the good work!

Thank you all for the responses! And Pia, do you have PDFs of some of those books. We are currently not really teaching kids however. Also, we are very wary of bringing instruments to our space due to the fact that in the past we tried to set up a music program but the kids destroyed all of the instruments. You know, kids are pretty crazy no matter what the circumstance!

hi alexi i am from syria and i want to thank you for your work i live i syria currently and and i will be glad for any help i would properly offer let become friend on italki and i am waiting for your reply

Hi Alexi! I also am writing a message to thank you for the work that you're doing! I don't have any useful knowledge of Arabic at all, but I can offer some resources that might be of assistance as you're writing your program and working/playing with the children. We have used theater games in language learning here in Rennes at the Franco-American institute, and this might be of interest to you? I can recommend the book 'Theater Games for the Classroom' by Viola Spolin. Anything you can do with songs, and games like charades, for example. She also has a chapter on transformation games, 'making the invisible visible'...Please send me a message if I can send you more details on these and what we have used successfully here in the past. Also, songs : kids in the primary classes here in rural France love songs like 'The Hokey Pokey' - it gets them moving and dancing and is a fun way to teach them the names for parts of the body. We've also done 'Summertime' with them, and 'This old man' to work with counting. We're working now on 'Octopus's garden' by the Beatles, which also might be nice, esp the line : oh what joy, for every girl and boy, knowing they're happy and they're safe... I have another book on writing/spelling practice in English that i'd be happy to scan if it could help. Keep up the good work!