In an effort to understand how children's literacy is affected by their life experiences, this article analyses the natural disposition of children to engage in musical activities that connect them to previous experiences and allow them to build new thoughts. Music is inherent to children's experiences and is related to sounds heard everyday, which facilitate mental imagery. This article focuses on the use of music as a tool that is instrumental in engaging children in thinking activities that promote literacy development. The author shows evidence of how music serves as a scaffold to foster thinking, self-expression and cultural awareness in children, including second-language learners, based on findings from an action research project conducted with pre-kindergarten to second-grade children and their teachers. The project used their explorations with music and soundscapes (sounds that characterise the environment) to promote thinking and enhance their creative writing. (Contains 2 figures.)