Wrapping Up the Fun!
/It was our last music class of the year and we all want more. We didn’t have a room full of kids this time, but definitely full of joy and fun! We played and sang and danced to our favourites songs.
Music Therapy
/Today our session took place at the home site and the room we were in played into the success of the session. It had large windows facing a courtyard and the low hum of the heating created a cosy environment.
The focus of today's session was on the theme of listening. The moms were introduced to music based meditation and music based drawing. They participated openly in the exercises, shared their thoughts on their drawings, and connected their insights with that of the others in the room.
Ukulele is Popular!
/During this week’s classes the ukulele program proved to be more popular than ever before! A lot of kids attended and we even had some first timers trying their first chords. We jammed to Jingle Bells and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, getting ready for the holidays.
What Energy!
/A full room of happy kids dancing, singing and having fun - that’s a way to describe our music class this week! After the class, the kids lined up to have a turn strumming the guitar for a grand finale.
A Walk in the Snow
/Inspired by a very snowy weekend in Toronto I created a class this week that would allow us to adventure out into the snow through music! Today's class had a bit of a different vibe because there were some older siblings present. This meant a lot more dancing! I also challenged the group with tempo speeding up and slowing down with action songs and complex rhythms to try out in the jam session. As usual everyone one was making music as a team from the youngest in the room to the oldest! What a true joy it is to sing, dance, and laugh with the folks at Arise!
Meeeeeow!
/This week was animal week at Rainbow Songs Foundation! Through songs we ate flies like frogs, hid in our turtle shells, hopped like bunnies, stomped with the elephants, and of course in our jam session we enjoyed a classic The Cat Came Back "MEEEEEOW"
Rock 'N' Roll
/I had so much fun this week with the young musicians at The Redwood. Each student has patience with their learning. They are very focused from the novice to the most experienced student. We worked on strumming patterns, tuning our ukes, and of course our rock 'n' roll poses! We finished with a fun sing along and rocked out to Skinnamarink, Three little Birds, and had a lot of good laughs along the way!
The Woman Within
/We had our second session today and a new mother joined this session. She was open to making music and drumming with me and the other leader. When she had the opportunity to lead the group, she did so with excitement and became visibly emotional when she noticed that she could provide her musical input without judgement. She described feeling free.
Silly Dances and Excitement
/What a great evening we all had at this week’s music class! Singing in unison to upbeat songs like If You’re Happy and You Know It, and What Are You Wearing?, all 12 participants had a smile on their faces.
Movement and Smiles
/Tonight’s class we had a full room and a lot of energy. We danced and did a lot of movement songs, during which we rode our imaginary bikes and got silly helping Johnny working with his hammers.