We were a little less in number this week, but that didn't mean there was less energy in the room. Ten children enjoyed "Momma Don' Allow," "Funga Alafia," "Apples and Bananas," and "All de Nations Like Bananas." With six of the children having been there three weeks or more there is a regular cheering section who lead the newcomers and encourage them to join in. With such an enthusiastic group, Caribbean themed class should be a blast.
This week’s class was HOT. Literally! Jessie’s Centre’s A/C system wasn’t working! To cope, we moved the class from the regular room to the more open-concept hallway where we had a few fans. It was still hot, and most of the babies were rockin’ out in their diapers! As a result, I kept this class more low-energy than usual. As a group, we didn’t do too much movement, or dancing, but I took the opportunity to include a few slower paced songs and lullabies in the mix. We did get the babies moving a little with a lap ride, “The Grand Old Duke of York”, and lifted them up and down for “Flying Babies”. (That one was a favourite for sure!) Last week, I had played the song “Hot, Hot, Hot!” for the jam part of class, and this week we did it sitting down with actions for the babies – waving their arms in the air and clapping to the beat! I also did a sharing activity with a ball, rolling it back and forth around the room. This worked really well as most of the participants in this week’s group were a bit older than they were the previous weeks.
This was also the biggest group I’ve had so far this summer, which is great as it means word is getting around and more people are returning or joining in to the class! The instrument of the week this week was the African Kalimba, also known as the thumb piano, and we played a few lullabies on it together, including “Twinkle, Twinkle” and “Frere Jacques”.
Well, we had a few more again this week. While the number of adults remains similar to previous weeks, we had 14 children participating! They were all shaking and rattling with the maracas as instrument of the week. And the one child who has been there all three weeks helped lead the singing of "Clap Your Hands, Now Sing 1, 2, 3", "I Shut the Door", "Apples and Bananas", "Corner Grocery Store", and "Mama Don' Allow", among others. Looking forward to even more people next week, hopefully we can recruit more adults.
Second week of classes was even better than the first. We had a couple of new faces and a couple returned from the previous week. I started the class out by reviewing some key songs we had learned the week before. One of the babies LOVED “The Tickle Song” so I did a few more songs about tickling, like “Tickling Turtles”. We also jammed to “Hot, Hot, Hot!” as we’re in the middle of a heat wave in Toronto.
The best part of this class was the Instrument of the week where I introduced the Chinese gong. All of the babies loved it and couldn’t wait for their turn to bang on it! Many were able to do it on their own, without the help of their mom or another grown-up, so this was very exciting.
Most of the children in this class are babies, but there was one older child and she wanted to try my guitar so after class I let her strum while I played the chords and we sang our ABCs together. All in all, it was a fun day!
Well, here we grow. No, that's not a typo – we had six more people this week! 12 children and two adults sang along to "BINGO", "Sticky Bubblegum", "I Shut the Door", "Mama Don' Allow", and other favourites. Most of those in attendance were new, but their shyness was quickly overcome by the fun energy of the returnees and they joined right in. They grooved on the tambourine, our Instrument of the Week, and of course screams of delight were heard as they danced under the parachute.
The June Callwood Centre re-opened today after being closed for a week due to renovations. The building looks great! We had a smaller class size as it was the first day back. Some participants had been to the previous session with Jessica so they already knew a lot of our Rainbow Songs repertoire! We started off the session with some opposite songs, such as “Roly Poly”. We tried some animal songs, and we jammed with all of the instruments to “You Are My Sunshine”. We also learned a Jamaican song called “Clap Your Hands and Sing 1-2-3” as we will have a Caribana-themed class coming up.
Hands down, the highlight of the class for the babies was the parachute, as they were all playing peek-a-boo underneath with the grown-ups. After class, I sat with the babies for a few minutes and had some of them strum my guitar because they had all been sizing it up for the whole class. That was a big success. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone again next week, and hopefully some new faces too!
It was good to be back at Birkdale again. We had an enthusiastic group to get things started. We sang and clapped through "Clap You Hands, Now Sing 1, 2, 3", "Sticky Bubblegum", "BINGO", "Old McDonald", "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Sleeping Bunnies" among others. As usual, the parachute proved to be a big hit. I received a most interesting comment from a pre-teen who had been playing with others at the far end of the room. When he wandered by after class while some of the kids were checking out the guitar, he expressed his surprise that there was a real guitar. He thought the music was coming from a CD player!
There were a couple of new faces at Birkdale this morning, so after some introductions we sang Hello. We started with the finger chant "My Thumbs", a new song that practices wiggling each body part one at a time, beginning with the thumbs, arms, toes and finally whole body. I saw a couple big yawns and was feeling a little sleepy myself, so I said to the class "Let's play pretend and re-wake up all over again!?" This brought about a number of responses like, "tuck me in mom!" and "turn out of the lights!". It was hilarious to see the kids role play! After waking up, I asked the kids "what should we do next?!", to which one child yelled out "BRUSH THE TEETH!". Great answer! We sang "Brush Your Teeth" and hopped on the bus (Wheels On The Bus) to get to "school" on time. Once at school, I asked "what are some of the things we learn at school?" Some of the answers were math, science, writing, reading, days of the week and colours. I took two of those answers and quickly incorporated them into our very own Rainbow Song lesson plan! Together we sang "Days Of The Week" and "What Are You Wearing".
IOTW was the Cabasa, a percussion instrument that is constructed with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wide cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, narrow wooden or plastic handle. The player places his non-dominant hand on the metal chain, to provide pressure, while holding the wooden handle with the other hand and twisting the instrument back and forth as per the rhythmic pattern desired. Another interesting piece of information that I shared with the group is that the Cabasa is frequently used in music therapy, particularly with individuals who have physical/neurological disabilities as it requires minimal hand movement to produce a sound. I taught them all the signs to "Clean-O" and we sang it slowly all together, using the Cabasa to mimic the sound of us scrubbing each body part. It was really fun to hear a new layer of tone color provided by the Cabasa.
We jammed to "Clean-O" to reinforce the learning of the lyrics and signs, and to have an opportunity to pass the IOTW around the circle. Considering how beautiful the weather is today, I was also inspired to sing one of my favourites, "Mr. Sun!" We brought out the parachute and danced around to "Some Like It Hot" and sang goodbye all together. My time at Birkdale is FLYING by! It crazy to think we are about half way through the spring session.
Oh boy, everyone was very sleepy in class today! I think the gloomy weather and allergy season was to blame for the absence of the majority of participants today, however, the rest of us soldiered on and I was VERY excited to sing some new songs with the group today. We started with a review, singing "Roly Poly", and "Where Is Thumbkin". Then I introduced a new finger chant called "One Little Finger". It focuses on using the whole hand to count to the number 5. We began by tapping the pointer fingers together, then putting them up in the air, down to the ground and in our laps. We did the same with two, three, etc. It was fun to see even the littlest ones trying to find three fingers on each hand. What a challenge! To follow, we woke up all our body parts with "I Wake Up My Hands". I asked the group to spread their arms out as wide as they could, and taught them another new song called "I Shut The Door". Once we shut the doors, we pretended to climb the bus steps for "Wheels On The Bus". (LOTS of non-locomotor movement today!). We took the bus to Old MacDonald's farm, where I asked the children, "What animals do you see?" Remembering that I had "quizzed" them on animal sounds and signs last week, I wanted to see what they could come up with on their own. Some of the answers were frog, cat, dog, pig, chicken, bird, crocodile, mouse, bug, rooster and cow...WHEW! After singing through ALL the animal verses, we stood up and sang one of my favourite songs, "Elephants Have Wrinkles". It was a great time for me to assess which children were able to find specific body parts (feet, knees, hips, ears, nose and teeth), and it was nice to stretch our bodies after sitting (and focusing) on the floor for longer than usual.
We stood for this week's IOTW. Hailing from Brazil, the Caxixi (pronounced as Ka-Shee-Shee) is a percussion instrument consisting of a closed basket with a flat bottom filled with beads and/or seeds. Like a maraca, it is sounded by shaking. First we practiced saying this new word all together to a rhythmic chant which the group echoed, "Ka-Shee-Shee, say it with me!" We passed one pair around the circle as we sang a couple of songs, "Shake My Sillies Out" and "Hey There Shakey Shakey". It gave everyone a chance to imitate and explore this new sound without the pressure of having to "perform" for the group. I decided to bring out the maracas to compare the similarities and differences, and demonstrated a rhythm that could be played on either instrument.
After handing out the rest of the non-pitched percussion (drum, maraca, tambourine, clave sticks), we incorporated the Caxixi rhythm into "Jamaica Farewell" for our jam. It was encouraging to hear how well the group was able to keep the rhythm going while singing a melody simultaneously. If we had tried this activity in the first week of class, I am not sure we would have been so successful! We finished with the parachute, which is always a highlight for the children. I decided to keep the Caxixi with me and play along to the various song samples while sitting underneath with the children.
Singing goodbye was thankfully a little less dramatic than last week, and with a couple of yawns being passed around from face to face, I sent them off for lunch!
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