Making Room for Spontaneity

The kids were on incredibly good behaviour when I came in. I’ve noticed that aside from a small handful of disruptive kids (who the shelter staff are very skilled at helping with), all the kids are engaged and want to learn, so they do a good job at self regulating so things don’t get too rowdy. It feels like a milestone from when we started in the fall! One highlight of the class was while sharing our favourite songs and musical artists, one kid referenced a song called It’s Raining Tacos, which triggered a spontaneous song and dance number from half the class. I simply had to make that a greater part of the lesson, but we also still had time for amazing percussion explorations, which had the kids demonstrating just how clever they are at subdividing rhythms. I’m really excited to see where we go in this direction!

Hopping Through the Room

We did lots of hopping on this week’s music class. It started with our waking up song. One of the actions to wake up our bodies is hopping. Another highlight of the class was the song Sleeping Bunnies. So much fun to go “pretend sleeping” and energetically “wake up” as hopping bunnies!

A Rousing Start!

Our first class at Nellie's was a huge hit! The class consisted of two three year old girls and two baby boys, and a mom with each child. The older toddlers were on their feet immediately, singing along and dancing. And the mom/baby duos were also enjoying themselves. The highlight for me was during the parachute, however, when a mom and baby went and lay down under the parachute, unprompted by me, with the mom lifting her baby in the air each time the parachute flew up. This made the toddler girls giggle and they joined in by lying down and watching the parachute together in community. For a first time at a new shelter, this class wa ssuccess!

Big Fun

It's always a blast meeting new students! There has been some turn over at Ernestine's, so this class was spent getting to know everyone! We sang everyone's song requests. It is so wonderful to hear everyone share their ideas and even see the big kids get into "the baby songs" because they see how must the little ones like it!

Unique Melodies

This week at Ernestine's we had two enthusiastic school aged students. One declared, "I don't want music time to end." The adults outnumbered the kids but we all took turns creating unique melodies on the glockenspiel. We also had a good jam with the percussion instruments, trying new and different rhythms for each song.

Animal Sounds!

What a blast! An engaged group of kids set the mood to our music night this week. With classics like Old McDonald and new ones like Baby Shark, giggles and joy took over!

The highlight was all the dance moves. This group loves to dance!

A Moving Start

We had a great first music class of the year! With lots of movement songs we got to know all the participants and “shook our sillies out”! Highlights were our cowboy and cowgirl song Coming ‘Round The Mountain, and all the actions we did while singing it together.

Taking Turns with the Singing Bowl

Last night at Arise we sang about the winter weather and pretended to be snowflakes melting on the ground when the sun comes out. Then we made silly faces while singing The Little Green Frog, and hopped around like bunnies to Sleeping Bunnies. The highlight of the class however was when I brought out the singing bowl as the instrument of the week. The children were very interested in this instrument! They all took two turns each, and insisted on the moms trying to play them as well. The class then ended with many hugs!

Together Under the Parachute

Last week's Arise class was another fun one. The children were once again extremely engaged, and highlights included tapping and stopping with our rhythm sticks, as well as the parachute. There was a moment under the parachute when a few children joined hands in a circle and began jumping together in unison to the music. It was really lovely. Back there tonight!

New Year, New Fun!

We were back for our first class of the new year at Arise last night. The ages of the children ranged from 2-6 years old, and they all waited for the class to start with anticipation. Then when we started, this was maybe the most focused and engaged RSF group I've ever had!! It felt like a true celebration, with lots of dancing and singing together. One little girl was a natural born performer and turned outwards to face the rest of the group and showed off her dancing skills. She had the other children and grown-ups smiling and encouraging her. It was super fun and also heartwarming to see how much the mothers in attendance were enjoying themselves. I'm really looking forward to continuing with this group again next week!