Make-Believe, Music and Movement with Littlemagictrain. A resource pack using storylines, illustrations, music and movement to help children learn. Littlemagictrain is a springboard for further learning and child led play.
During this time Gina Bale met Jonathan Still and Daniel Jones the original masterminds behind the amazing music and Littlemagictrain was officially born in the spring of 2004.
Over the next 15 years Littlemagictrain was tried and tested through different venues and ways of delivering from managing classes to licensing (dance teachers/leisure centres/pre-schools and Butlins) with over 100,000+ children per year participating in sessions.
However, during this time the financial crisis had a major impact and changed Littlemagictrain forever. We heard rumours from teachers that some children, who normally join in, were being excluded from sessions and had to watch from the sidelines.
Finding this hard to believe we visited a few settings. We discovered that a parents were finding it hard to pay for any extras, which was quite understandable at that time of uncertainty, and the children were being made to sit and watch and unable to join in.
This horrified us and we immediately decided to stop sessions in every setting as this went against everything we at Littlemagictrain believed in and couldn’t bear the thought of some children being excluded. Littlemagictrain strongly believes all children should be given the opportunity to learn through play, movement and sensory activities. This is when the hard work started again as we needed to find a way of delivering the adventures that were cost effective for settings making them sustainable, ensuring all children in a setting would be able to join in and never be excluded.
'The Break': 2010 - 2012
The Littlemagictrain took a break whilst we found the best way of putting all the knowledge and skills, we had acquired over the years, for delivering Movement sessions for Early Years into a resource pack.
Our goal was to create a resource that anyone could just pick up and use. We did all the hard work so practitioners and settings could have fun and enjoy the learning experience with the children. Each session has an individual theme ranging from ‘Under the Sea’ to ‘Football on the Moon’ while visiting the ‘Amazon’ and ‘North Pole’ along the way. With music that has been specifically composed and recorded for each adventure by our wonderful Musicians.
How it works
The Littlemagictrain takes the children on the adventure. The action of the children helping to make the train grow and then jumping on board allows the children to enter the make-believe world. This helps the children become more imaginative and creative whilst learning about the world around them.
Littlemagictrain actively engages the children so they are involved in the learning process while having fun. The sessions themes are developed by allowing for repetition, for learning, followed by creating the excitement of ‘what next’!
Littlemagictrain is an ideal resource, for practitioners or settings, to engage all children even those that can be hard to reach at first. Practitioners can just pick up our resource pack and run a session - all the work and planning has been done for them. The pack comprises sessions plans, illustrations, practitioners notes, music, stickers and of course a train whistle.
We have to admit it took a few mistakes along the way to ensure things were clear and help those who were not so confident in doing it themselves. Two years later in February 2012 the first pack arrived from the printers.
The Resource Pack Pilot: 2012 - 2014
Now the work truly began as we had to explain to settings and practitioners that they could deliver these sessions in house with their own staff. It took some time for them to believe they had the confidence but the response and feedback was excellent.
There were requests for more sessions so we got back to work. Jonathan and a new musical mastermind called Andrew Holdsworth came on board to help with the new tracks for the sessi.
2014 - Present Day
September 2014 saw the launch of the second pack at the Childcare Expo in Coventry with great success.
In 2016 Butlin’s asked Littlemagictrain to trial sessions as part of their new ‘Teeny tot’s’ concept as an extension of the ‘Just for Tot’s’ break.
This was very successful and Littlemagictrain is so proud and have been running sessions to date. In 2019 the sessions were developed further and we were so excited when Bonnie Bear wanted to appear on stage with the Redcoats to join the fun.
Littlemagictrain continues to increase the number of settings offering the sessions and in the last couple of years has run training sessions specifically for Flying Start settings in Wales including: Bridgend, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Cym Taf, Rhonnda Cynon Taf and Newport. The training sessions develop the skills needed to be creative enabling the practitioners to encourage the children to enter the make-believe world of Littlemagictrain forming a bridge between their magical journey and the real world. The benefits for children range from Dialogic Reading to Physical Development.
We have also been working with Liz Shoreman, a Speech and Language Therapist, who originally came across Littlemagictrain as a resource to deliver sessions in her schools. Things have been going so well that she is creating additional activities for us that link to the sessions. These wonderful activities are now available on the Website as a download.
Tarquins Tale 2020:
We are collaborating with EYMatters and The Health Kick (EYTV) on Tarquins Tale. Tarquin the Tiger is in need of some help as he spends all day inside watching TV eating Tiger snacks. The Littlemagictrain and his team of helpers (Wanda the Witch, Louise from The Health Kick and Simon’s friend Ellie) are working together to help Tarquin be more active, going outside to play with his friends, and most importantly eating healthily. If he does all that he should have his Broomstick Badge before long. Tarquins Tale, Activities and recipes are all downloadable on the website.
Covid-19 and On-line Training:
Since the Covid-19 crisis Littlemagictrain is now offering Zoom training for individuals or groups. In-house training will still be available if preferred for large settings or groups when it is safe.
Don’t forget these sessions can be run online with your children if they are unable to return to your setting. There are also a range of free resources on the website for practitioners and children.
More Sessions:
Littlemagictrain is working on more sessions with a new style of illustrations. Any thoughts or requests are always welcome and you can contact us on: [email protected]
Let the Littlemagictrain 🚂 take your little ones on a magical journey of learning with our award-winning resources, teacher training, and support.
