Let’s Get Social!

by | Apr 12, 2016 | Class Registration, Parents

Social Skills Music Therapy Group

We are now three weeks into our new social skills class called Let’s Get Social, and it has already been a wonderful adventure. Although “adventure” might be an accurate term for most classes, this one has called for a much different perspective.

Up to this point, our primary focus has been on our Listen and Learn for Little Ones Classes, which are created to support and encourage development for children birth to age five within a rich musical environment. In those classes our approach is broad and reaches many domains. That being said, the structure of a social skills class, focusing on one domain, calls for a different approach.

Every social skills class and session will be different. Every session is planned based upon what is best for each group as a whole and the individuals within in. At the beginning of this session, I decide to search for the big question.

The big question is essentially the goal for that group to achieve by the end of the session. This could be anything from “How can I support them this week to achieve team work and collaboration?” to “How can I facilitate a session where they make eye contact and communicate verbally to one another?”.  This is  an achievable adaptation to traditional assessment, planning, and documentation, because our sessions are only five weeks I made our focus specific and inclusive of everyone.

In this structure I have seen a great response from clients and families. It is amazing how quickly an idea can be applied and put it into practice. Those are the moments that stick with me: when I see individuals apply themselves and they see the success happen right then and there. I am so grateful to share in those moments with them.

A Multimedia Counting Songbook!

by | Apr 5, 2016 | MTC, Resources

Counting Through the Seasons

Back in August when we were creating the curriculum for our early childhood music class, I wrote a song called “Little Red Apples” to work on counting skills. While I was at the studio setting up the night before the first session,

I decided to make five apples out of construction paper to go along with the song. Our kiddos loved counting and manipulating the visuals as we sang, so the counting song became a staple in every round of classes.

Each session, we wrote and introduced a new counting song with visuals to match. The songs all follow the same template and are nature-themed, so together they form a nice collection.

Five Tall Trees

When we realized we had two songs for each season, it was a no-brainer to package them up for others to use as well.

But Counting Through the Seasons isn’t just a songbook. We wanted it to be as helpful a resource as possible, so we included all of the following:

  • sheet music (melody line + chords)
  • mp3 recordings
  • instructional videos
  • visual aide templates
  • photos

No matter what the season, you’ll have a counting song for your little ones — and it can easily be adapted to go beyond the number 5. We consider all of our songs to simply be starting points; our job is to tailor the musical experience to our students’ unique needs.

This multimedia songbook contains the following original songs:

  • “Five Swirling Snowflakes”
  • “Counting Clouds”
  • “Raindrops in a Row”
  • “Five Flowing Flowers”
  • “Little Red Apples”
  • “Five Leaves Waving”
  • “Five Orange Pumpkins”
  • “Five Tall Trees”

We hope you and your kiddos enjoy them as much as we do. Check out the details and download Counting Through the Seasons here.