21st Century Toddlers’ Dialogues with Traditional Toy Songs

Eleni Ilia

(University of Athens, Greece)

Abstract: Toys songs follow specific rhythmic patterns and presuppose movement, teamwork and collaboration. Their involvement in the educational process contributes significantly to the balanced development of toddlers. In our proposal, the toy songs are further used by the gamers, a fun context they recommend, to encourage the participating students to produce original narrative texts. The texts are created based on the title or a verse of the playful songs based on the teaching principle of declining guidance. They evolve as an imitation or as a modification or as a reversal of the initial stimulus, expressing the characteristics, experiences and desires of their little creators. The ability for toy songs not only to entertain but also to inspire today’s toddlers proves their timelessness. Toddlers’ stories are recorded on a computer and are available as a form and as a post on the school blog, both to their creators and to the entire online community, to enhance the willingness to participate in similar activities.

Key words: creative storytelling, team games, texts