Dan Colquhoun, a kindergarten teacher from Sydney, educates his young students by encouraging them to sing and clap along to his songs, which he says are influenced by his love of "big hair '80s bands".

After posting the animated songs on YouTube, his work has been viewed more than 350,000 times from more than 100 countries.

"We make up actions to the songs we write together and it's a great way to engage multisensory learners," he said. "The kids love singing along and dancing and movement is important in kindergarten because they are really kinaesthetic and visual learners. The repetition is also really important for the early learner."

The teacher from St Declan's Catholic Primary Penshurst has written about 30 songs over the past three years, mostly about language and maths.

He has been contacted by educators from around the world who have used his music in their classrooms.

At a conference in Las Vegas earlier this year a speaker, who was not aware Mr Colquhoun was in the crowd, played one of the videos as part of a presentation.

"I just was sitting in the audience and one of my songs came up on the big screen," he said. "That was pretty great to have them play my song in front of more than 1,900 delegates."

He describes his music as "kind of rock 'n' roll" but he occasionally dabbles in funk, folk and disco.

"I grew up listening to big hair '80s bands and that's pretty much influenced me," he said. "It's strange putting that sort of melody to educational lyrics but it's quite catchy so children remember the choruses."