In last night's class we had children aged ten and up, so along with music, I brought in some tween yoga to accommodate this age group. They loved the yoga and we all bonded and had a lovely time. We finished with the parachute and they requested we dance to All I Want For Christmas Is You.
This was a nice, intimate, class at Arise, which allowed for lots of personal accommodations and requests from the little ones. One of my favourite thing about kids is that they never get tired of certain songs, which is why (by request) we sang Sleeping Bunnies four times in a row! Our staff person provided wonderful help in turning the lights on and off to add a bit more excitement to the song. For our instrument of the week, I showed the kids the jaw harp – I'm not the best player, but the kids were still enthralled by its wild, warbly, sound. For the jam, we sang Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and once again there were requests to repeat the song over and over. Then a different parent came in, just as we were finishing the jam, and said "Oh I love that song!", so we all sang it again. It was a fun and cozy class in between the two Christmas trees, and I could tell the kids were spent by the end.
Last week we met a new family to the shelter who had only just arrived that day. It was an honour to be able to welcome them in with music and laughter. The child in the family is thirteen, and though the songs were catered to a younger audience, she seemed happy to participate and support the younger children. Highlights included Sleeping Bunnies, trying out different rhythms with the rhythm sticks, and parachute.
This week we had a special visitor, board member Natasha, and the children loved having her in the class! We also sang a new song I learned that goes as follows, "apples, peaches, pears and plums, stand up when your birthday comes." We learned about the months of the year as well as when everyone's birthday was! The group was really in to it. We ended with this group's favourite tradition, dancing under the parachute to Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me.
We continued where we left off at Arise last week, expanding on the song I'm a Clever Cook, in which we exercised our brains to sing in the right order all of the many ingredients we added to our stew. We also brought back the thunder tubes and added in a rainstick to make it sound like a thunderstorm. The whole group also had fun with The Hokey Pokey, Sleeping Bunnies, and more Taylor Swift parachute time (a fan favourite right now!).
We had a fun class last week celebrating Halloween and the ever-changing fall season. We sang I'm a Clever Cook and made a pretend autumn stew (or witch's brew), did the Monster Mash, and made some scary sounds with the thunder tubes. This particular group also consists of Taylor Swift fans, so we danced to You Belong With Me under the parachute (third week in a row) and had a blast!
The energy was high at Arise today, as some of the older kids were practically bouncing off the walls (and occasionally bouncing off the couches)! The grownups in the room laughed along and encouraged the enthusiastic participation, but it became clear quite quickly that the kids were more engaged in more game/play-based songs, so we ran through songs like The Hokey Pokey, Walk and Stop, and 5 Little Monkeys, with some spontaneous additions, and even made up our own new song for the Floor is Lava game. One of the kids seemed to be a bit disconnected and perhaps not having the best day, but the other kids and grownups were very caring towards him and kept him involved without pushing him into it, and by the time we brought out the music bag I saw a smile on his face when he started clicking the castanets. I really felt the way music can brighten someone's day in that moment.
At the beginning of class this week the children seemed to have a lot of energy they needed to get out, so we started with Shake Your Sillies Out, and an activity called the shakedown. This seemed to help them release some of those "sillies," and after moving our bodies we sang a spooky Halloween song called Shut the Door. They enjoyed this, and even wanted to try performing the song solo/one at a time for the group. I also brought back the "musical spoons" as our featured instrument, and they had a blast getting to try them out.
Today was the first time we met for music therapy this fall, and there were a few familiar faces. As a way to introduce ourselves to each other, the moms answered the ice breaker question: “If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be?” There was laughter in the room and shared connection between the women as they discussed their superpowers and how their lives would be different if they had these superpowers.
We then moved onto a drumming activity where the women got to explore the drum and play a few games. They then played a steady beat on their drums to Could You Be Loved by Bob Marley, and they shared how powerful the lyrics were. To continue exploring songs with powerful lyrics, we sang Stand By Me, Lean On Me, and Three Little Birds.
As the session came to a close, we started an activity where the women would create their own superwoman logo with an affirmation of what makes them a superwoman. We will be completing this activity during the following week.
In this week's class we continued with some fall-themed songs, and pretended to be the falling leaves from the trees as we sang, "Falling falling falling leaves, mother nature did you sneeze?!" We also did the Itsy, Bitsy, Spider, and the children got creative and wanted to show me their best yoga spider poses. For the instrument feature, I brought out the "musical spoons" for the first time and everyone was intrigued, including the staff member!
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