We had a great class at Robertson House this week. I continue to be impressed with the level of engagement from parents and staff. One great moment from the class came during our rendition of Down By The Bay. When I asked the crowd for some rhymes to insert into the song, a young girl sang, “Have you ever seen a mango, doing the tango?” It was one of many contributions to the class from the enthusiastic participants. I look forward to another great class next week!
It was really nice to reconnect with staff and one child who was part of my Spring 2018 Birkdale session. It was also really nice to meet some new kids and caregivers. We had a special day today as we had three generations in the class (child, mom, grandmother). That was a first! Today I challenged the kids to try to clap their hands to the beat of the song. We worked on body part awareness songs and used the rainbow stretchy rope to practice Row, Row, Row Your Boat, and I Have a Little Bicycle. We explored the Rain Stick for our special instrument of the week, and the kids loved tipping it from side to side to hear the sound of the rain (the beads swishing from one end to the other).
This week’s class was a great opener to the session. With record attendance and great participation from the grown-ups, it was an energetic class filled with lots of smiles. We kicked it all off with a rendition of Open ‘Em, Shut ‘Em to focus the group. This worked quite well to get the group working together. Kids always love making silly faces during that song. I look forward to a great session at Robertson House!
Today was a special day to be finishing up our session at the Plaza, as we had Joanne in to do interviews and videography. The kids didn’t mind, and actually seemed intrigued by the camera (but not more intrigued than they are by the guitar, which still excites them as much as anything else, every week). It was nice to share stories and memories with Joanne. One of the staff members told us that the kids sing the Hello song all the time, just walking through the halls of the Plaza. It’s great to know that they carry the music with them, and it shows, because we finished the session with a bang! Lots of energy, especially for Roly Poly and all the clapping songs. We also got to say hello to the parachute again this week, for a final Twist and Shout that got all the dancing vibes out. As I left, the staff members said they were crossing their fingers that I return in the fall. I hope so too! I have a lot of respect for the program at the Plaza and am grateful to have been a part of it for this half of 2018. Till next time!
We had a great last class at Robertson House with big attendance and lots of fun! One highlight was during our rendition of Down By The Bay. When I asked the crowd for animal names to rhyme the lyrics with, a young girl quietly said “Have you ever seen a pig wearing a wig?” Everybody had a big laugh at that. We had a nice time handing out certificates of participation and musical gifts at the end of the class. I also provided some dessert treats and fruit to make it a party! I’ll miss my Robertson class! I’m grateful to have had another great session!
Our last class of this long session was bumped up a week early due to a mandatory full day staff meeting for Birkdale staff. We had a smaller turnout today, but we had a lot of fun. We had two veteran participants and two new ones. I brought the Chinese Opera Gong to class today, and the kids had a fun time using the mallet to hit the gong loudly and listening to how long the gong resonated and sounded for. We also played with the Stretchy Rainbow Rope and sang Roly Poly and practiced doing the opposite actions of up/down, big/small, and fast/slow. But their favourite moment seemed to be doing The Freeze Dance and Sleeping Bunnies under the parachute.
Between last week and this week, a couple of the kids who have been in the program all session had moved out of Ernestine. Though I wish I could have said a proper goodbye, I know they’ll be singing these songs wherever they are. Meanwhile, the kids at Ernestine still love the music, and some of the ones who were babies at the beginning of the session are already walking during the movement songs, and clapping along throughout. The big hit today was the vibraslap, which I love to bring out toward the end of a session, because it’s just silly and plain fun. The kids loved it, and we had a great last jam and parachute, with one of the best versions of Shake It Baby Shake It we’ve had all session. I’ll miss this group very much!
There were more new friends to say hello to during this week’s class. I made sure to run through songs with lots of direction, and the kids who were familiar with the songs started demonstrating to the new ones as I was going over songs! Unfortunately we lost most of the parents about halfway through, as a number of them had appointments. Perhaps next week I’ll come by a bit earlier to start things up.
Sharing the beanbag has become one of the favourite activities of the kids, which always follows quite well with What Are You Wearing (this week I included patterns in the song as well as colours). Because of the lack of grown-ups, we had to do without the parachute today, but we did an extra high-energy version of 5 Little Monkeys to close out the class. By the time I left, the kids were singing goodbye while giving high fives, and smiling all around.
We had a great time playing with the spoons today at Robertson House! We took a few moments to practice hitting the spoons between our knees and hands then launched right into Old MacDonald as the spoons were passed around and played to the beat. I was impressed with how quickly the young ones caught on. Looking forward to our next and final class of the session!
Following up on our last Birkdale class where I had demonstrated the clave sticks and taught them a Latin clave beat, today I brought the cowbell and agogo from Brazil. We practiced keeping a steady beat with the cowbell (which the kids were excellent at!) and each child got to take a solo on the agogo. I even taught the caregivers and staff members how to properly do the Bachata (a Latin type of slow dance) during parachute time. We all had a lot of Latin music fun!
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