There was a very calm energy at the Gooch centre today. The group was on the smaller side (compared to the usual big group) and most of the kids were ones that I recognized. It is amazing how well they are all getting to know the songs. They sang along to "Wake Up My Hands" and "Little Green Frog" with ease. I decided to take advantage of the small class size and do more movement today because it is normally difficult to get such a big group moving in a small space. We did "Five Little Monkeys" for the first time and they all jumped around and laughed and had a blast the whole time! When the monkeys "went to bed", we became sleeping bunnies. The kids love this song and had a lot of fun waking up and going back to sleep. We did the singing bowls for the IOTW and two other staff members helped me pass them around. The kids LOVED them!

It was one of the little boys' birthday so after we sang the goodbye song, the group went over to the table to sing happy birthday and have cake. The mom asked me to play guitar and sing with the cake, which I was more than happy to do! This was a really nice way to end the class today and the kids were singing "ABCD"--one of the songs we did during our jam session--as the grown ups passed around the cake. It's really exciting for me to see music extending outside of the circle!

I love working with this group and can't wait for next week--I've already had a request for the "Turtle Song"!