The Goodrich Way: Tiny Toes Come to Pre-K

Young children love music. That is a given. They hear a catchy tune, and they can’t help

but wiggle and dance around. This is where Ms. Roberta comes in. When Ms. Roberta

comes to your classroom, the children know it is going to be a great day! They see her

walk in the door with her guitar or ukulele, and excitement immediately fills the air. They

are curious to find out what she is bringing in her bag of tricks. Is it a new instrument?

Is it a new song? Is it a new dance? With Ms. Roberta, you never know for sure. But

one thing is certain, the children are going to have a blast!

Ms. Roberta Wentling is the owner and director of Tiny Toes Music, and she comes to

visit us multiple times throughout the school year. We are fortunate to have this

enriching activity for our students thanks to Dr. Anne Bowers, who sees the value in

quality programming for all of our preschool classrooms. Ms. Roberta never ceases to

amaze students and staff alike. It is a rare occasion when children’s entertainment is also

engaging for the adults as well. According to the Tiny Toes Music website, each session

is designed to nurture a child’s natural musicality in a playful, developmentally appropriate,

musically rich learning environment. Ms. Roberta is an exceptionally talented musician

and has the gift to engage children while implementing songs, fingerplays, musical

instruments, scarves, and a variety of other things into each of her sessions. The beauty

of this program is that it is accessible to all of our students. Through every single one of

her sessions, Ms. Roberta meets the children right where they are at, and makes them

feel comfortable and included. Not only is she a wonderful musician and educator, she

is a very warm and caring person, and the children are simply mesmerized by her.

Here is an example of a session with Ms. Roberta:

Ms. Roberta playing a small tongue drum to open the session and welcome the children to

join in and sing.

Ms. Roberta doing a finger play with the children, to a variation of the song;

"Ten in the Bed".

Children are singing a song and encouraging "Stevie" to jump, even though it is

challenging for him.

Gotta get those wiggles out! Ms. Roberta does a round of Freeze Dance

with the children.

Ms. Roberta shares her bag with a wide variety of musical instruments for the

children to explore. Children are invited to play any, and as many, instruments

as they like while they listen to a catchy song. This part of the session is so fun,

even the teachers join in!

After all the excitement, Ms. Roberta invites the children to lay down on the carpet for

a relaxing moment as she serenades them with, "What a Wonderful World"

and gently plays the ukulele.

Ms. Roberta bids the children "adieu" with one last song and her ukulele.

The children are always sad to see Ms. Roberta go.

If you are interested in seeing Ms. Roberta in person yourself, you can visit her during

one of her events that she hosts in Hinsdale, Downers Grove or Clarendon Hills.

Pages