Music Speaks!

Yesterday’s class at Arise started off small with only two children, and then grew as the class went on. A couple big highlights included: two moms dancing to Don’t Worry Be Happy (which one of the mothers had previously requested), and hearing a five year-old girl singing the Goodbye song while cuddling her mom while I was packing up to leave. This particular child has special needs and I had only ever heard her speak three or four words over the course of the last six months! So hearing her sing words was huge! The co-ordinator told me later that this girl expresses herself best through music. It was very special!!

Happy Harmonica!

It was great to be joined by more of our familiar friends at Ernestine.  A new addition to the repertoire today was C’mon Everybody… It’s Time to…, with clapping, dancing, jumping, stomping, hip shaking, and plenty of smiling and laughing.  The kids love songs that feature speed-up components, like when I do Head and Shoulders Knees And Toes.  The biggest hit today was the harmonica, which I brought out for IOTW.  Everybody sang along to the ABCs as I played the melody on the harmonica, and we finished with a big jam.  Hard to believe next week is our last of the year!

Little Dancers!

I was very happy with the group participation this week at Robertson House. The parents and kids were intently following along when we added sign language to Old MacDonald during the “E-I-E-I-O” part. A favourite moment of the class was during our parachute time when a boy started to bounce and shake his arms around as he hopped to the tune of Sleeping Bunnies. It’s great to see kids expressing themselves in this way.

Animal Hour

Because of animal week during regular Rainbow Songs classes, I kept that spirit alive today at Birkdale with a full animal roster of songs.  Unsurprisingly, the kids loved 5 Little Monkeys the best, as it was the most active. In fact, towards the end they were crawling all over the place, so I had to harness some of that energy into an elephant march. I brought out the Tibetan wooden frogs as the instrument of the week, and the kids shared very well. One of our biggest fans is one of the members of the kitchen staff at Birkdale, who always comes in during the class to sing and clap along. She always brings a great energy!

Small but Mighty

Today was a low-key session, as many of our regulars were out of the building for various reasons. However, there was no loss of enthusiasm from one student; in fact, he seemed to delight at the amount of personal attention I was able to give during the class, and his favourite firetruck toy was able to make a centre stage appearance. Verbal communication is increasing a noticeable amount, which makes for fun Q&As after class during high five and pack-up time.

Circle Time!

Lots of laughs and smiles at our Robertson House class this week! We had a big group with some really helpful grown-ups singing their very best. When it came time to stand up and march in a circle, a group of kids joined hands and were marching and singing together as we moved along. Always great to see teamwork!

Hodgy Podgy

This week’s class was high energy! We had a larger group of kids attend, and they really enjoyed dancing to the Hello song, jamming to Señorita and Don’t Worry Be Happy with the instruments, and teaching me a game/rhythm exercise of their own called Hodgy Podgy. In this game we tapped our legs and clapped to a beat and went around the circle saying one word each, on the beat, to make full sentences. It was quite a hit and they really got into it. The children in the group are mostly older than eight years old right now, and I found this to be a good mentally stimulating and musical activity for them. I will likely bring it back!

Groovy Grown-ups!

Today was one of the best classes of the whole session. It was great to have Michelle visiting and taking some photos to capture the very joyful vibe. The parents were all very engaged, and the focus from the kids was the best I’ve seen it in weeks. For our Instrument of the Week, I played the harmonica, and while I played the melody to ABC / Ba Ba Black Sheep / Twinkle Little Star, all the grown-ups (and some of the kids) sang along openly and happily, even without me singing! It’s great to see that confidence.

A New Friend

Today was a "small but mighty" class at Ernestine, with lots of engagement from kids and parents alike. One child seems to know all of the songs now, and a second is walking AND clapping at the same time. We said hello to a new baby in the class, whose mom seemed quite tickled by the silly vibe we had; plus there was a lot of actual tickling going on! Hopefully they’ll be repeat singers. The more the merrier!

Yee-Haw!

We had a lively class at Robertson House this week. The participants had a great time click-clacking our instrument of the week, the spoons, to the beat of She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain. One mom happily took the lead on the call and answer part, belting out the part that goes "Yee-haw" in response to the main verse. It's always good to see such enthusiasm from the grown-ups in the class. Looking forward to more fun in the weeks to come!