Music Express Foundation Stage provides a two-year rolling programme of active, holistic, play-based learning that is imaginative, inspiring and fun for 3-5 year olds.

The book + double CD + CD-ROM pack provides 36 units divided into six sections which represent Areas of Learning at Foundation Stage:

Personal, social and emotional development
Communication, language and literacy
Mathematical development
Knowledge and understanding of the world
Physical development
Creative development

Within each unit there are four progressive activities which take children through the stepping stones yellow, blue and green, to the grey of an Early Learning Goal. This is a child-centred resource which starts from where the children are and progresses from there.

The pack includes two CDs containing 96 tracks of songs, chants, stories, poems, and listening resources.

On the CD-ROM there are videoclips for the children to watch, exemplar clips of practitioners using the material with their children (an unrehearsed, sampler of how you can expect children to respond), and videoclips of a range of useful instruments.

Also on the CD-ROM there is an extensive full-colour picture gallery of printable images, some of which are interactive. All the melody lines of songs are given as an aid to music readers. Single printouts of these and all the story texts may be made for use within the setting.

In addition, the CD-ROM contains a carefully cross-referenced directory of the Learning intentions behind each of the activities.

This is a resource which has been written for Foundation Stage Practitioners and assumes no prior musical knowledge or experience. No music reading is required!

Music Express Foundation Stage provides a solid basis on which to continue building children's skills, understanding and enjoyment of music. It leads directly into Music Express Years 1-6 which follows the English QCA scheme of work for music, and provides complete coverage of the Music National Curriculum of England, of Wales and of Northern Ireland and the 5-14 National Guidelines for Scotland.

This website provides further support for practitioners teaching music to this age group as well as supplementary ideas and songs for music to ring the changes from one year to the next.

Visit the Foundation Stage ideas bank for more details.