Little Swallows

Swallow Hill Music’s signature community outreach program that introduces preschool-aged children to the world of music making.

What is Little Swallows?

In our signature early childhood education music program, classes meet weekly to introduce three- and four-year-old students to music using songs, creative movement, rhymes, percussion instruments and other fun activities to address the four Colorado Academic Standards for preschool music: expression, creation, theory, and aesthetic valuation. The program deepens children’s learning experiences by offering them positive and fun experiences in music during their most formative years.

Little Swallows class at McGlone Academy

Swallow Hill introduces young people to the joy of music through two means:

Little Swallows classes are offered in-house at our building on Broadway and Yale. You can register for these classes on adrop-in basis or register for all full 8-week session. Scholarships are available.

Swallow Hill brings Little Swallows programming to preschools and community organizations through our outreach programming.

Research Supports Music and Early Education!

Engaging children in music education before age six helps the child speak more clearly, develop a larger vocabulary and strengthen his or her social and emotional skills.

Exposure to music in early childhood promotes literacy, gross and fine motor skills and prepares students for success in kindergarten by introducing them to basic classroom skills.

Early development is critical to future success; early childhood programs can generate government savings that more than repay their costs and produce returns to society that outpace most public and private investments.

Source: The Economics of Early Childhood Policy: What the Dismal Science Has to Say About Investing in Children by M. Rebecca Kilburn and Lynn A. Karoly, OP-227-CFP

Want to learn more?

Email Joshua at abeyta@swallowhillmusic.org

Watch Us Grow

In 2019, more than 1,800 students from 29 schools participated in Little Swallows. We are partnering with Denver, Mapleton and Aurora Public Schools, Mile High Early Learning, KIPP Schools, Family STAR Montessori, Dahlia Campus for Health & Well-Being and Warren Village preschool.

Success Stories

“Little Swallows is not only an engaging and fun music program for preschool students, it has a tangible impact on the development of young brains. Research increasingly shows the importance of learning self-regulation in the early years and Little Swallows is helping to build this executive function in addition to memory and cognitive skills. As the Instructional Superintendent for Early Childhood at Denver Public Schools, I am pleased that Swallow Hill is bringing this program to students in our community who might not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in high-quality music programming that helps ensure future school success.”

—Priscilla Hopkins, Instructional Superintendent – Early Childhood Education, Denver Public Schools

“The Little Swallows program has had a huge impact on us by giving us access to quality music education and quality instruction. Music education is a tool and an asset that has been demonstrated to help with cognitive ability, linguistic development, and fine motor skills. Our kids have experienced significant trauma and this is an additional way that we can help kids raise the trajectory of where they can go.”

—Ethan Hemming, CEO, Warren Village

“Part of our vision of turnaround was grounded in the idea that the arts could be a huge factor in increasing student joy in the classroom, which would in turn change academic outcomes. Since turnaround, we have proven that this is possible – McGlone has catapulted from one of the lowest-performing schools to a top growth school for the past five years, and last year, expanded to become an ECE-8 Academy. I firmly believe that not only is this general music program a wonderful way to introduce children ages 3 and 4 to the world of music making, but it has changed the academic trajectory of our students.”

—Sarah Gips Goodall, Principal, McGlone Academy

Support Little Swallows Outreach Programs

Leverage Your Investment
w/ the Colorado Child Care Tax Credit

Colorado is offering a 50% income tax credit to taxpayers who donate to qualifying programs – Swallow Hill’s Little Swallows early childhood music education program is one of those programs! The effect of this credit is that half of your donation is offset by dollar-for-dollar reduction of your Colorado income taxes.

Your gift to Swallow Hill’s Little Swallows program helps those whose early lives have been marked by poverty. Taxpayers who make a monetary contribution to a qualifying program in Colorado that promotes child care may claim an income tax credit of 50% of the total contribution, in addition to standard charitable deductions.