The Polkadots have been having a great time over the last few weeks convincing hundreds of North Shore children to get ‘Travelwise’!

Following on from the Booster Rooster project, the North Shore City Council TravelWise team asked us to write and perform some fun workshops and a mini-musical to help get the ‘Road Safety’ message across to the children and families. They also wanted to encourage ‘eco-friendly’ ways of travelling to school, like walking, and riding bikes.

We had a great time writing new songs like ‘Travelwise Star!’ and ‘Before you cross the street!” and working out the dance routines, but the best part was the reaction from the children. In every school, the response was fantastic as we had all of the children marching through the school chanting and singing “Beat Ya Feet!” and even the teachers were getting into the spirit of it.

Children might not always go home talking about what they did at school, but they often go home singing. Now they can walk home and sing and do the occasional crazy, monster, cowboy or cat walk as well. It’s got to be a great way to teach such an important message!

We recently had the opportunity to spend an evening with Home Based Educators, sharing with them the Polkadots story, and how Polkadots Podules can be used in their day to day work. We were able to practice a bit of what we preach by taking the ladies through a lesson from the Rhythmical Roots Podule, learning and playing with the Italian musical terms. Everyone broke out their best singing voices and sang a beautiful rendition of ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ while changing up the tempo when instructed with the Tempo Cards.

We had lots of fun singing and sharing a few of our songs from each of our albums, Science Seekers, Body Bop and Rhythmical Roots.It was a really fun evening and we got to meet lots of great ladies with a similar passion for teaching children and bringing learning to life for the children in their care.

Thanks to Amanda from Amanda’s Home Based Educators for organising the evening. For more information about Polkadots Podules and how they can help you make every moment a teaching moment with your child go to www.polkadots.co.nz.

Lately, the majority of our time has been taken up with working on a campaign we will soon be doing with the North Shore City Council TravelWise Team, to encourage families to take more sustainable modes of transport to get to school. We’ve been writing scripts, workshops and three very cool and exciting new songs!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to get back into the recording studio to start bringing these songs to life! Who would have thought singing about modes of sustainable transport could be so much fun! We had a blast and it made us even more excited to get into the schools we will be visiting to share this message!

We are really happy to be a involved with this campaign as it is great to be a part of an initiative that will help make our country and community be ‘Greener!’ We can’t share the songs with you just yet, as the big reveal will take place in the first school we visit at the end of June. But watch this space and our Facebook page to hear the songs soon!

In the mean time here are some shots of our latest recording session @ The Sound Room!

Dionne in action!

Sarah doing her thing!

Dez in the moment!

Carly feeling the groove!

Mr Bop being Mr Bop!

We all convened on Polkadot Farm on Saturday to undertake a bit of a special project. With Mothers Day (in New Zealand) fast approaching we decided that we would like to do a special Mothers Day tribute. We don’t want to give away too much before we release it… but it was a fun morning getting together with all of our kids and thinking about how much we love being mothers.

Dez, Sarah, Carly, Dionne

Our Mothers Day tribute video will go live on our Website this coming Monday in place of our weekly adventure video! So make sure you go and check it out and share it with everyone you know who has a mum, so that they are reminded to say Thank You to their mums.

Dez with her girl Brooklyn

Carly with her boy Ashton-Paul

No Polkadots shoot is complete without a jumping shot!

Sarah and her girls Caydence & Camryn

Dionne with one of her girls Anika