We had a great time getting everyone reved up and ready to party, and loved being able to to something small to support the Copelands also. We wish the Copelands all the best and want to say thank you to all thank you to all those who pulled the even together from Apples!

So week 1 of the Body Bop Challenge EduConcerts are done! And we had a blast doing it! We were able to visit 4 different primary schools, all of which had some of their neigbouring kindergartens or pre-schools come and join them to see the Body Bop EduConcert!

It was a real buzz for us when we were able to look out into the audience and see all of the children, teachers and parents dancing along with us doing all of the Body Bop moves! That just made us want to dance even more.

You may ask… what is the ‘Body Bop Challenge’? or what is an ‘EduConcert’?. . .  Well we wanted to help encourage children and their families to do more to become fit and healthy in their day to day activities, and we wanted to be able to share this message (and challenge) with as many children as possible. So we went out and found companies who had the same message to share to sponsor us into the schools so that no one would have to pay for it! Having these companies sponsor us also means that every child who attends the EduConcerts receives a FREE Body Bop Challenge DVD, complete with a challenge booklet and stickers!

The Challenge booklet has lots of different activities in it, presented in the form of a challenge, that encourages and educates children all about the different ways they can keep fit and stay healthy in their day to day activities. Every time they complete part of the challenge they collect a sticker.

The EduConcert has been designed to teach children in a fun and interactive way about everything they need to know to complete the Challenge and understand the basic fundamentals of healthy living… all done in the form of dance, music, and stories!

We still have 3 more weeks of EduConcerts to go and we can’t wait to go and make lots more Polkadotty friends along the way! Check out our EduConcert schedule on our FaceBook Events page to see if we will be coming to your school!

Kauri Park Primary School

One of our friends from Kauri Park Primary

Kauri Park Primary School

Campbells Bay Primary

Takapuna Primary School

Dez taking the children through their animal stretches

Mr Bop and Sarah in action for our "Sam the Sailor" story!

Mr Bop full of energy after he refuels with this healthy snack!

Mr Bop, Dez and Sarah having some Sporty Fun with the Basket Balls!

With our Polkadotty Friends from Silverdale Kindergarten!

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 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.

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!

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

Sarah on the phone to Eva

The Warkworth Primary School Hall was full and we all agreed that the Warkworth audience were a great crowd! The kids were decked out in all of their Polkadots gear (some of them even painted dots all over themselves!) This great Polkadotty turn out prompted a Polkadot Fashion show half way through the concert… Our very first fashion show at that!

The Polkadotty Fashion Show (the very first one ever!)

The children also spontaneously broke out in a mass demonstration of the splitz after Dez showed off her flexibility during her ‘Celebrate’ dance with Mr Bop!

Mass Splitz session! (Maybe we could make it into the Guiness Book of records for the most people doing the splitz at once!)

We had lots of fun up in Warkworth and made lots of new Polkadotty friends. We even got to see Mela (Eva’s sister) she took a photo with us after the concert, but made us all get right down like a tiger to take the photo! Thanks Eva and family for sharing your friends with us and thanks to Jayne Boesley for taking the time and effort to organise the event.

Getting down like a tiger with Mela (Eva's sister)Eva Mitchell

Before the show!

There was a really good turn out of around 80 mum’s! which means that there was that many children too if not more! It was really nice having a chance to mix and mingle with some of these families. It was even more fun being able to dance and sing with them during and after the session.

The Polkadots with some of the babies of the Mum's with Bub's group

If you would like to know more about the Sylvia Park Mum’s with Bub’s group follow this link! http://www.sylviapark.org/mums-bubs

To date the Polkadots Blog has been covering a mixture of topics from adventure ideas, to parenting tips. We have recently decided to change up the nature of the Polkadots Blog to be a “Behind the scenes with The Polkadots” Blog. As we go about our Polkadotty fun, meeting new people, doing various concerts and functions, writing songs, filming music videos… whatever the fun may be we will be writing about it in our Blog!

We already have a few things back logged to write about, so we will get writing and hope that you enjoy learning more about the Polkadots and the many exciting adventures we get to go on as a group!

Ashton explores the sounds of the keyboard

I just held him up to the keyboard for what seemed like an eternity (need to work those mummy muscles at bit better I think!) letting him explore the different sounds coming from the different keys. He went up and down the keyboard and on the odd occasion would turn back to look at me and to share the moment with him.

The joy of music exploration!

As I saw his interest level start to drop away I re-sparked his interest by changing the sound the notes made to be like a violin. The sound each note made was longer and for lack of a better description “more shrill”. But I could see Ashton noticed the difference, as he refocused his attention. I continued to refocus Ashton whenever I saw his attention wavering by introducing a new way of using the keyboard. We explored the backing beats, which really got him jumping around and even playing the keyboard differently. We played the scale over and over, his hand on mine, my hand guiding his fingers, his eyes watching my hand move up and down. We played some simple nursery rhymes or well known children’s songs (the extent of my abilities on the piano.) In the end we spent a good 35-40 minutes playing on the keyboard!

Now who said babies have a short attention span! We just need to help them develop it, by refocusing them and keeping learning interesting!