Music Play with Purpose (PK-2)

This session is a great follow-up to Jim’s keynote address. It is filled with the musical inspiration you’ll need to keep energized!

Jim will share additional musical games and explain, in greater detail, the purpose behind his play. His active music play provides a context for children to develop abilities, such as self-regulation, essential to school success. Jim’s clever word play and rhymes in the context of active movement games also provide broad opportunities for literacy development.

You’ll bring some inspiration, useful in the morning and afternoon, back to your work with young children!

About the presenter - Jim Gill is a musician and author with unique credentials among children's artists. Jim is a child development specialist, completing his graduate studies in child development at the Erikson Institute of Chicago with a special emphasis on the study of play. For this reason, each of Jim's recordings and books is created as an opportunity for playful interactions between a child and a caring adult.

Jim has released seven award-winning CDs of music play for young children that are favorites in family rooms, classrooms and playrooms. Jim is also the author of two children's books. His latest, A Soup Opera, is a sing-along opera inspired by concerts that Jim performs with symphony orchestras. The book received an American Library Association award in 2010.