Educating Hearts, Inspiring Minds
IM4U Learning is a teacher and curricular resource that blends fun, music, and activities with cooperative problem-solving to teach young children ages 4-6 lifelong social-emotional learning skills. Our lessons are simple for teachers to implement and speak to children in their own language with fun music, videos, puppets skits, cooperative games, and creative play.
This approach helps children explore and experience healthy behaviors and develop their unique identity as they learn these foundational skills.
IM4U means “Be a friend to yourself and others.”
Our purpose is to support children, their teachers, and their families by creating an environment of connection, growth, and discovery. We believe that education is not just about academics but also about building strong hearts and minds.
It’s tough to be a kid these days and it’s tough to be a teacher, too. Increasing stressors at school and in the home can have a negative impact on academic achievement, student well-being, and school culture.
By integrating fun music, videos, and cooperative games, IM4U Learning unlocks the joys of learning and teaching.
IM4U Learning resources provide a simple, easy-to- follow lesson format which includes everything teachers need in one place, saving teachers valuable time to focus on their students.
With a shortage of planning time, it can be difficult to curate and integrate appropriate resources and gather supplies for each day’s lesson. IM4U Learning makes teacher prep easier by linking video and music resources directly into each lesson.
When it’s time to teach the lesson, engaging young children in active learning needs to be easy to execute. Our short daily lessons provide 3 simple steps–introducing the concept through a song or skit, learning prompts to facilitate discussions and activities to apply the concepts.
I literally love your beliefs and concepts when it comes to our children. Building up emotionally strong children is so important in today’s world. I always say, 'today’s children are tomorrow’s future.
This 8-week teacher and curricular resource helps children explore and experience healthy behaviors and develop their unique identity as they learn foundational skills, such as making friends; diversity, equality & inclusion; respect; sharing; listening; resilience; growth mindset and more. The daily and weekly lessons help teachers connect these concepts to real-time applications in the classroom, while also extending the framework for families to apply in the home.
Do you want to help young learners develop their social-emotional skills through music and play-based activities?
Click below to contact us and learn more.
Did you know that you can use federal and local funding to enhance your students’ social-emotional learning?
By utilizing government funding, such as ESSER or other grant programs, you can bring JOY to your classroom and impact the emotional development of your young learners. ESSER stands for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, a federal program administered by the Department of Education in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These funds can be used by schools to purchase new educational technology and programs that aid in regular and substantive educational interaction between students and their educators. Now is the perfect time to put your government resources to work for you and your students. A resource like Friendship Basics from IM4ULearning can be fully funded without taking away from your school’s budget, making it a great investment in your students’ social and emotional well-being. Funds must be used by September, so please contact us for more information!
Join our community to learn more about more joyful resources for teachers, children, & families we’re creating for the future.
Everyone on the IM4U Learning team is committed to helping children, as well as educators and families. We define success as children wanting to do the right thing–even when no one is watching–because it feels good to be our best selves.
Jim Mayer, Founder
Founder of IM4U Learning and highly acclaimed professional musician, Jim has performed and recorded as a member of Jimmy Buffett’s Coral Reefer Band for over 30 years. As a children’s advocate, songwriter, and author, Jim has presented at national educational conferences and has spread joy with musical events and workshops for over 50,000 children and their educators in the U.S. and Europe. Jim has earned several esteemed aways for his children’s music, including:
Maura Connor, Chief Executive Officer
Maura has built and led high-performing teams in the educational technology, publishing, workforce development and healthcare industries for over 25 years. During her career at Pearson Education and Saunders/Harcourt, Maura launched award-winning portfolios and innovative product models in education. She led the digital transformation of the educational publishing industry with the development of eLearning solutions that help educators teach and students learn standards-based material.
Ellen Booth Church, Early Childhood Author
Nationally recognized as an early childhood educator, keynote speaker, and writer, Ellen has published for over 20 years by Scholastic Books and consulted with numerous TV shows, including PBS Kids, Disney, and the Cartoon Network.
Her unique approach of combining cognitive learning experiences with creative play transforms how we integrated music & fun with social-emotional learning. A former Associate Professor of Early Childhood at SUNY Farmingdale, Ellen is also the author of Getting to the Heart of Learning, which explores the concept that ALL learning is social-emotional learning.
Kristin McFadden, Early Childhood Author
Kristin is recently retired from early childhood education, with over 30 years of experience as an early childhood teacher and curriculum writer for PreK and Kindergarten in Chicago Public Schools. During her distinguished career, she signed and taught the first District Inclusion Preschool, and she served 10 years on district’s SEL committee. Kristin writes, edits, and correlates IM4U Learning content according to CASEL competencies and other standards.
Ginny Schenk, Account Manager
Born with a passion for education, Ginny has spent over 25 years dedicated to impacting learning solutions for students. With experience both in the classroom and in the publishing/edtech space, she has developed a deep understanding of what educators need to succeed. As a former educator, Ginny has witnessed firsthand the importance of connecting educators to high-quality resources to achieve the best possible learning outcomes for all students. She is especially passionate about developing strong relationships and supporting her customers from beginning to the end to ensure a great experience. Whether it’s working with educators to identify the right resources, how to integrate new tools into the classroom or providing support to customers, she is committed to engaging, supporting and delivering the solutions that educators need and deserve.
