Peter & Ellen Allard's Jewish Workshop FAQ's

What are the titles of the teacher keynotes and workshops you present?

Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it!
SING! SING! SING! A Music-Based Approach to Math and Literacy In The Early Childhood Classroom
Using Music To Enhance Cognitive, Language, Social & Physical Development
Marvelous Musical Moments for Infants & Toddlers
These are our four most popular and most-requested presentations. In addition, we are happy to work with you to create a presentation specifically for your conference.

How would you describe these presentations?

Please know that while each of these four presentations works quite well individually, they are terrific in tandem with each other.
Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! has two components: repertoire-building and motivation. We present as much music as possible and do it in a way that excites and inspires teachers to return to their school/programs ready to create singing classrooms. We’ve presented this workshop with great success and continue to get requests for it on a regular basis.

SING! SING! SING! A Music-Based Approach to Math and Literacy In The Early Childhood Classroom demonstrates how math and literacy can be enhanced through music and the use of Tactile Make-&-Take Teaching Tools™. Peter & Ellen can demonstrate the use of the Tactile Make-&-Take Teaching Tools™ OR you can choose to allow time for participants to actually create some of these tools to bring back to their classrooms.

Using Music To Enhance Cognitive, Language, Social & Physical Development allows us to offer a theoretical explanation for why music is a vital part of any strong early childhood curriculum. We examine the four areas of development (cognitive, language, social/emotional, physical) and discuss the skills inherent in each area. We then give concrete examples of music that directly builds those skills. By the conclusion of this workshop, we help teachers “turn the kaleidoscope” and forever shift their perception of the role that music plays in their classrooms.

Marvelous Musical Moments for Infants & Toddlers teaches a repertoire of easy-to-learn songs, fingerplays, bounces, palm tickles, and singing games that will completely enliven any infant and toddler program and help teachers understand the importance of music in their curriculum.

How are your presentations geared for Early Childhood Professionals in Jewish schools?

In the workshops we offer for Early Childhood Professionals in Jewish schools, we share secular songs as well as songs that include all or some hebrew. We also focus on how music can help teach Jewish values. We help teachers see that music can be taught through a “Jewish lens”. No matter if the music is secular or Jewish in nature, there is always a way to use music to help promote living a life that reflects Jewish values.

Do you provide descriptions for these presentations that we can include in our conference brochures?

Yes, we have complete descriptions for these presentations. We can shorten the descriptions to suit your conference brochure layout needs. We only ask that our sponsors allow us to do the editing and make the necessary changes. With email, we can do it in a snap.

Can our teachers receive CEU’s (Continuing Education Units) for your keynotes and/or workshops?

Our experience has been that when sponsors contact their state department of education and fill out the appropriate forms, CEU’s can be granted to each participant.

How long are your presentations?

We can adapt the length of our presentations to your needs. Typically they run anywhere from one to three hours. If the Tactile Make-&-Take Teaching Tools™ component is added to the SING! SING! SING! A Music-Based Approach to Math and Literacy In The Early Childhood Classroom workshop, we add an additional hour to allow for creating the make-&-takes.

Do you provide the materials for the Tactile Make-&-Take Teaching Tools™?

We provide you with a list of the materials needed. In many cases, you will already have many of the materials, for example, scissors, glue sticks, construction paper, hot glue guns, markers, crayons etc. For the materials that you don’t have, either you can purchase them on your own or you can order and purchase pre-made kits that we have assembled at a very well-stocked teacher’s store in Massachusetts. We can give you an idea of the cost for these kits once we determine the workshops we are presenting. If sponsors charge a fee for participants to attend our workshops, they will often add a small materials fee to the original workshop fee.

What goals do you have when presenting your keynotes and workshops for Jewish Early Childhood professionals?

Many Early Childhood teachers already use music in their programs, whether it’s a secular or Jewish Early Childhood program. Our goal is to motivate those who don’t use music on a regular basis to do so, and to help those who use music to do so more creatively and effectively. We want to help everyone understand the important place that music has in the early childhood classroom.

By presenting accessible material (songs, fingerplays, singing games, chants) that is easy for teachers to learn and easy for them to teach to their students, we hope to provide teachers with a repertoire that they can “make their own”. We want to help teachers see that music is extraordinarily valuable in building the skills that all children need to grow. By looking at cognitive, language, social, and physical development through a musical lens, teachers will begin to see that the very skills they hope to hone in their young students can be strengthened and supported through developmentally-appropriate music education.

We help teachers in Jewish Early Childhood classrooms see that music can be taught through a “Jewish lens”. No matter if the music is secular or Jewish in nature, there is always a way to use music to help promote living a life that reflects Jewish values.

For example, here are the lyrics to one of our original Jewish songs called TEN ETZBAOT. Though most of the song is sung in English, it includes the hebrew word “etzbaot” which means fingers.

TEN ETZBAOT

Verse 1:
Etzbaot, etzbaot
I have ten etzbaot
(repeat)
With a clap clap clap (echo)
Etzbaot.

Verse 2:
Etzbaot, etzbaot
I have ten etzbaot
(repeat)
With a clap clap clap (echo)
With a pat pat pat (echo)
Etzbaot.

Verse 3:
Etzbaot, etzbaot
I have ten etzbaot
(repeat)
With a clap clap clap (echo)
With a pat pat pat (echo)
With a wave wave wave (wave)
Etzbaot.

Continue adding verses. During each new verse, you sing through the prior hand movements, in order, as added from the beginning of the song, adding a new hand movement for each new verse.

We recommend that when you teach our song “TEN ETZBAOT”, you might include an extended activity where the children dip their hands in paint and make handprints on their own piece of paper or on a large piece of butcher paper with all of the other children’s handprints. Under each child’s set of handprints you can write “I used my hands to do the following mitzvah (good deed): _________________________. You can ask each child to think of a mitzvah that he/she did and you can print their answer in the blank space underneath their handprint. That is a very simple but effective way to add Jewish value to the music you teach!

How can you help our busy teachers, especially those with no formal musical background, learn the songs and, as importantly, then use them in the classroom?

During our 30 years of teaching and performing, we have individually and jointly collected and composed the music we share at our presentations. It has been child and teacher-tested and we KNOW it works. We have developed an extensive repertoire of songs, fingerplays, singing games, and chants that are extremely easy for teachers to learn. We realize that their time is limited. Teachers have many balls to juggle when it comes to their personal and professional lives. We have always known that if we can provide them with music that they can learn quickly (listen to a CD in the car on the way to school, learn the song in one or two trips!), they will be more likely to develop musical classrooms and they will be more likely to build their musical repertoires.

In this crazy “you-have-to-be-a-specialist” world we live in, some people have come to believe that you need to be a trained musician to successfully share music with students. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Yes, there is an important place for music specialists in the early childhood classroom AND we also strongly encourage classroom teachers to sing with their students! Don’t worry about how you sound! What is most important is your willingness to sing and your enthusiasm for the music! And if your children laugh at you (which is doubtful), what a great opportunity for you to say to them “I know I might not sound like a real singer, but that’s ok cause I LOVE to sing and I hope you’ll sing with me!”. What a great model we can provide for our students when we help them bring music back into our lives. It’s an old-fashioned and sweet concept!

You both play guitar during your presentations. Do teachers need to learn to play guitar or accompany themselves on a musical instrument?

When we taught music in the classroom (we each taught on our own), we often shared songs that required the use of our hands and bodies. We would put down our guitars and sing acapella, with no musical accompaniment. It is not necessary to always (or ever, for that matter) accompany yourself on an instrument. If need be, you can pick up an inexpensive pitch pipe at a music store; this will help you find a starting note for your songs. But the music can stand on its’ own, without musical accompaniment.

However, having said that, we also encourage teachers to learn a new instrument. The autoharp is a wonderful and easy instrument to play. And you can learn just a few chords (two or three!) on the guitar and you’ll be able to play dozens of songs. It takes a bit of practice, but it is manageable. And there are lots of instructional videos to help one learn any musical instrument.

Can you customize a presentation to the theme of a conference?

Absolutely. We rise to the challenge! We’d be more than happy to make our presentations work with the theme of your conference.

How large are the audiences for whom you present?

There is no upper limit to the size of our audience.

Can you tailor your presentations to help our participants learn about and teach according to our particular state preschool guidelines?

Absolutely. Our workshops go hand-in-hand with most of the standards in every states’ guidelines. Our music supports language arts, math, history and social studies, safety and health, music, theatre arts, visual arts, movement and dance, and physical education!

Do you need a sound system for your presentations?

For 50 or fewer people, we don’t need to be amplified. However, for larger groups, we do need a sound system, though a very simple one will do. If we are driving to your event, we can bring our own professional sound system. However, if we are flying to your event, we will need you to provide a sound system. We can email you our technical sound rider and we can also help you make the arrangements for a sound system. Usually a sound system costs in the $100 - $125 range per day. If we need it for more than one day, vendors will often reduce the cost for the second day.

Do you distribute handouts to the participants?

Prior to the conference, we snail mail or email handouts to our sponsors and ask that they be duplicated.

Do you make your CD’s and songbook/teacher manuals available for purchase at the conference?

We spend very little time focusing on the sale of our materials, however we do make them available at the conclusion of our presentations. Teachers want to be able to take CD’s and songbook/teacher manuals home with them. When they hear music they like, they want to have it available as a resource so they can more easily learn it and teach it to their students.

What are your vending needs? Will you need volunteers to help with your sales?

The size and location of our vending area depends on the number of participants attending your conference and the physical proximity of our presentations to the vending area, which will also impact whether we ask for vending volunteers. We can discuss that with you when our participation in your event is confirmed.

How far in advance do you book?

If you have a confirmed date for your event, we suggest that you book one to two years in advance. Our weekends, especially in the fall and spring, tend to get booked very quickly.

Who makes the arrangements for your travel?

With online booking so accessible and easy, we have found it easy to make our own travel arrangements. However, we can work with your travel agent as well.

Do you provide promotional materials for the event?

Upon confirming our participation in your conference, we snailmail and/or email the workshop titles and descriptions, glossy 8x10’s, and our bio’s. We have all of this accessible at our website, so you can download what you need. If we present a family or children’s concert, we can also provide large professionally printed posters to display in your community.

Are you available to present concerts for children? Evening entertainment for adults?

Yes and yes!!!

Can children attend your teacher presentations?

We have had children attend our presentations. Though we structure our presentation for teachers, children are absolutely welcome to attend.

I’m interested in a workshop and want to bring information to my committee. What do I do?

We encourage interested sponsors to call us on our toll-free line (1-888-746-4481) with questions. We will answer all of your questions to the best of our abilities. Or feel free to email us at info@peterandellen.com. You can also print out pages at our website that can be shared with your committee at your next planning meeting.

How many events are you willing to schedule during a conference?

It depends on the circumstances of each individual conference or training day. We will work with you to maximize our presence during the entire event.

Does the number of our presentations change your fee?

Our fee is determined by the number of days we present or perform plus expenses which include travel costs, hotel, and meals. As discussed earlier in this list of answers, we also ask you to cover the cost of the sound system, the duplication of our handouts, and the cost of the materials for the make-&-takes should you choose this workshop. Oftentimes, sponsors already have most of the materials needed for teachers to create the make-&-takes.

We are happy to discuss our fee with you as we help plan our participation in your event. Sometimes there are other mitigating factors that can lower our fee. Feel free to ask us about this.

What are your fees?

Our fees have always been reflective of the current rates charged by others in our field. Please call or email us for your quote. We will try to accommodate your budget as best we can.

We want you to know that negotiating our fee can sometimes be the most awkward part of our work. After all, most of us aren’t business people! We are teachers or former teachers or parents who want to provide the best programming for their teachers or for their students or children. But, since this is how we earn our living, we must get paid for the work we so love to do. And so, we ask sponsors to remember that even though it might be awkward to talk about our fee (which sometimes translates to negotiating our fee), we invite you to do so. After all, the bottom line is that you found us and now together we can try and figure out how to make our visit a reality.

Can we preview your presentations?

Absolutely. If you are not registered for a conference at which we’re presenting, but you want to preview our work, please let us know in advance so that we can make your visit possible.

Can we tape record your presentations?

You are welcome to invite individual teachers to bring tape recording devices with which to tape our presentations. However, we ask that your institution refrain from recording our entire presentation.

Keynote & Workshop FAQ's
for Early Childhood Professionals in Jewish Schools

"Thanks for your interest, we hope to hear from you real soon!"

Keynote & Workshop FAQ's for Early Childhood Professionals in Jewish Schools

"Thanks for your interest, we hope to hear from you real soon!"

Keynote & Workshop FAQ's
for Early Childhood Professionals in Jewish Schools