Today was my second day of being able to lead my own music therapy session! I had the red classroom of children ages 4-5 years old. I have always loved working with this age group so I was very open minded and excited going into the session. Since this session was the last session of the morning, I wanted to make sure everything ran perfectly!
Here is the breakdown of my session:
1. Hello Song – same as yesterday as I kept using Veronica’s song for the kids to keep consistency and familiarity. The children were completely into it. I asked for other ways to say hello, and they gave me lots of ideas such as: say hello, look at me, wave, shake hands, high five, and give a hug.
2. Bumblebee – I used the same “Baby Bumblebee” song with this age group but changed how I facilitated the activity to increase the difficulty for some children that are higher functioning. We worked on finger movement and independence. I had them be able to connect their first fingers together, their thumbs together, and the first finger to their palm (all of which are goals being worked on already in the classroom). Also, I asked questions about bees to engage the children and use it as a learning/teaching opportunity.
3. Colors and Numbers – My third activity was a “Five Little Ducks” application to work on counting skills and color recognition. The kids all did very well with their counting forwards AND backwards. Also, I asked some children to find a certain color duck and asked some others to tell me the letters beginning and/or ending a certain color (i.e. what letter does purple start with? What letter ends the color green?). I wish I would have expanded more on the application to include more of the children, but that was a learning experience so I will know how to incorporate feedback into the next time I do this activity!
4. Shake My Sillies Out – The final group activity was a gross motor movement and leadership opportunity activity. I had the children stand up and we sang “Shake My Sillies Out” and participated in movements associated with words I sang. We shook our arms, feet, head, twirled around, took a rest on the floor, jumped up and down, wiggled, and did many other moves. The children had the opportunity to tell me what movement they wanted the group to do and we would all have fun doing it together! I was able to act very animated and you could just tell how in love I am with working with children.
5. Goodbye Song – And to end the session, I used Veronica’s goodbye song like all other sessions. Like in the Hello Song, the children gave me ideas of different ways to say goodbye to someone.
Today was a great experience as the rest of the week has been so far. I’m really looking forward to our last day tomorrow and have volunteered to lead the music therapy session for the pink classroom of 6 months to 1 year old. I have lots of brand new activities planned that should go really well and have taken soooooooo many pictures already! JoAnn is going to record my session so I can have proof that I do well with children and so I can impress my family with my music therapy. This experience keeps getting better and better. Oh, I have also learned a lot of sign language! Well, not a lot… but I have learned my colors along with some important phrases children need to know. So not only can I communicate to the children who are very verbal and high functioning, but now I can communicate with the nonverbal children using sign language. Be excited for tomorrow’s report! Stay tuned!!
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