Pam Gittleman is a Multi-Award-Winning Author, Early Childhood Music Educator, and the Creator of Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®.
As an early childhood music educator for over 25 years, Pam has a strong passion for singing, rhyming, reading stories, and making music with preschoolers. She created Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®, a collection of updated nursery rhymes that are more relevant and kind than their predecessors, to empower families and educators with research-based tools to nurture social-emotional learning (SEL) and foster positive values in young children.
Pam’s journey began with the release of the Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times album, a collaboration with world-renowned children’s artists Raffi and Lindsay Munroe. Building on its success, she expanded into videos and books, creating engaging multimedia experiences for young learners. She then collaborated with the “Queen of Children’s Music”, Laurie Berkner, to release an EP of three additional rhymes. With millions of song streams, a growing YouTube channel, and numerous literary awards, Pam’s work continues to resonate with families and educators alike.
A former VP at Ogilvy and Mather Advertising with an MBA from Wharton, Pam transitioned to music education to pursue her passion for early childhood development. She later deepened her expertise at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, where she refined her mission to create equitable, accessible resources for all children. Aside from making music with kids, Pam loves dogs and dark chocolate. She lives in New York with her husband and cherishes time spent with her children, grandchildren and granddogs.
This one-on-one interview shares Pam’s background and experience writing Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®, Volume 2.
Tell us about Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®, Volume 2.
Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times®, Volume 2 contains nine updated nursery rhymes that foster kindness, empathy, and gratitude.
From This Little Piggy (where a pig family is sharing food at a picnic and no pigs are going to market!) to Rock-a-Bye Baby (where a kind brother and sister are soothing a baby owl in a swinging cradle that does NOT fall out of the tree), all nine rhymes include relevant and kind stories that parents and teachers can feel good about reading (or singing!) together.
The nine rhymes in this book are: This Little Piggy, Rock-a-Bye Baby, Peter Peter Pickle Eater, Old Mother Hubbard, Diddle Diddle Dumpling, Rub a Dub Dub, Sing a Song of Six Cents, There Was a Nice Lady, Tom Tom the Plumber's Son.
Each rhyme is accompanied by research-based tools for parents and teachers that support social and emotional learning and language development. From QR codes to hear each rhyme read aloud, discussion questions to stimulate conversations, and emojis to support emotional development, everyone can feel good about sharing these new rhymes with the young children they love.
Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® is a multimedia brand. Why is it important to incorporate music and video content in regards to early childhood education?
Music has been shown to support cognition, language learning (phonological awareness, vocabulary, comprehension) and social and emotional well-being.
The music came before the books as a result of acclaimed children’s music artist, Raffi, taking an interest in our concept. He loved the updated rhymes and produced music for 15 of them in the Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times album released in May 2022.
Afterwards I wanted to add visuals that would illustrate the characters in the rhymes in a variety of social situations and experiencing a variety of emotions that young kids could relate to. So, we created videos that included a diverse array of characters, situations and emotions to accompany the recorded music.
While the music and videos provided different modalities to support early childhood skill development, the books added a new level of engagement by supporting young learners on their literacy journeys. With the books, they could go from listening to the rhymes being read by others while looking at the illustrations, to talking about the characters and stories, to eventually learning to read the rhymes on their own. In addition, both the books and the videos gave us an opportunity to include tools, in the form of guiding questions and emojis, to support social and emotional learning, which is critical to early childhood development, long-term academic success, and has become an important part of our brand identity.
With all the success of the Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® brand, what are your plans for the future?
I’m thrilled that our 18 recorded rhymes, performed by iconic artists like Raffi, Lindsay Munroe, and Laurie Berkner, have surpassed 10 million song streams!
With a growing YouTube channel featuring videos for all our rhymes and the completion of Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® Volumes 1 and 2, I’m already envisioning the possibilities for Volume 3.
I’m eager to collaborate with more incredible artists and continue creating music, videos, and stories that inspire joy, kindness, and connection among young learners everywhere!
Purchasing the Book
Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® Volume 2 is available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Walmart. The book’s retail release is scheduled for March 2025, but a special bundle discount of Volume 1 and 2 is currently available now and can be purchased directly from Pam’s publisher, Mascot Books: Nursery Rhymes for Kinder Times® Volume 1 & 2 Bundle.
To celebrate the book’s release, Pam will be attending family and early childhood education events and the book will be part of a virtual book tour starting in March.
To connect with Pam, visit www.pamgittleman.com, Facebook (@ForKinderTimes) and Instagram (@forkindertimes). To hear recorded songs of all the rhymes, as well as low-stimulation videos that bring each rhyme to life, visit: www.youtube.com/@nurseryrhymesforkindertimes.
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