On the day after Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to start the class with the 5 Little Pumpkins song from last week. To my pleasant surprise, many of the kids remembered the lyrics word for word, even going so far as to preemptively blurt out the next lines! This week everyone seemed quite excited by the songs with stops and starts, such as the Bicycle Song, Walk Walk Walk and Stop, and Shake it Baby Shake It. When one of the kids referred to one of these songs as being a game, all of a sudden some of the more reluctant ones started participating more eagerly. Framing them that way seems to be quite effective, and I’ve made a mental note as such. The children are also getting much better at sharing and putting away instruments during jam time, and it was all smiles by the end of class (as opposed to the occasional bickering over who gets which drum). Wonderful improvements!