Latest News

Half term holiday -no sessions

We are on holiday for week commencing 26th May, so no sessions that week, back the following week on Wednesday 4th June. Hope it's sunny!

Storytelling workshop is a HIT!

Make your Story Time magical and Musical was the title for this workshop focussing on bringing storytime to life for under fives, (including babies); we looked at using songs, puppets and vocal techniques for making story time fun and entertaining for children and their carers. Trainees all enjoyed the workshop and left with a CD and lots of ideas to enhance their storytelling sessions; their work involves visiting childcare settings to encourage families to join the library, using materials from the Book Ahead Scheme. If you're interested in this type of workshop please do contact us.

Early Years Day at the Centre for Life,Newcastle upon Tyne Anna and Abi ran four very busy singing and music sessions at the Centre for Life, throughout the day at the first ever Early Years Activity Day on 21st April. All children aged 4 and under were invited - babies too! Entry to the centre was only £2 per child, adults were free. There were lots of activities including bubble machine, space stories, puppet planetarium and of course lots of singing. Piccolo sessions were booked up extremely early so we're sorry if you didn't get to sing with us on that day. Hopefully there will be more days like this coming soon.....for more details see Centre for Life

New CD and Resource Sheet for Schools 'Sing a Song of Everything'

This CD and resource sheet are a great addition to any Nursery, Reception or Key Stage One teacher's bag of tools. Piccolo takes the children on a musical adventure, encompassing Maths, English, Science, PE, French, Playground fun/PHSCE, Rhyme, Rhythm and stories - they have a song for every learning situation, be it number bonds, the lifecycle of the frog, or traditional fairy tales!

With the 21 tracks on the CD and detailed resource sheet, you can learn the songs, add actions and activities, and create numerous linked activities for a variety of topics. For details of the linked workshop we can offer to schools in the North East see Sing a Song of Everything

Piccolo Wins Silver Award for Radio programmes

Our radio series of songs and actions for babies and toddlers has won a prestigious Silver Award in the Practical Pre-School Awards 2007. The series of eight minute programmes entitled: 'A Basketful of Songs' was ground-tested by teachers, child-care professionals and children in nursery and early-years settings during Group Times and Free Play Time. Testers found the Piccolo songs sung by Anna Abi - with noisy interruptions from the 'Song Monster' who needs to learn his manners - interesting and amusing. The series is co-produced by Serious Music Business and Piccolo and can be heard on weekdays at 11.15am on FUN radio, by tuning into Fun Radio Live, on digital radio, or through Sky or on the Internet (see the web site for details). So be sure to check it out and tell your friends - now you don't have to live on Tyneside to enjoy Piccolo sing-alongs.

More Birthdays

Happy Birthday to Ciaran McDonald who was three in March,and also to Albert Griffiths, who was born in April this year! Not even a month old and he's a Piccolo winner! Both are winners of our Birthday CD draw. To enter your child's name see our Birthday Fun and Games page.

New Training Resource page

We now have some training resources including interactive training CDs, with a dedicated web-page with on-line ordering.

Online CD Orders: Shopping the easy way - Free delivery!

You can now pay for CD orders online using PayPal. See our CDs page for details of all products including 'Gift Wrap and Send' - an easy way to sort out gifts for Christmas, birthdays and new babies. You order your CDs or book, and we wrap them and post them with a card, showing your message to your friend or relative. Easy Peasy! Our CDs are always available to buy at sessions at a specially discounted price of £7.99 each, by cash or cheque.

Sell CDs and books for us and earn great extra income