Kitchen Dancing

A great day at Jessie's Centre! Today felt like a very full class with 10 of us around our small circle of carpet, which was wonderful! Our little singers especially got into sticking their tongues out during Little Green Frog, and being turned upside down during Grand Old Duke of York. One of the best parts about the class, though, was that during our jam session we sang Twist and Shout and the lovely ladies who work in the kitchen at Jessie's improvised a whole dance number for us from the back of the room – the grown-ups in the room were certainly entertained! It was great to have the whole centre alive with our music and not just our circle of participants. We'll definitely do a reprieve of Twist and Shout in the future and see if we can get the other staff to join in with dancing again!

The Resident Crier

Last week, a cheery greeting; this week, crying. A very young man, also from the previous session, saw me and burst into tears. And cry he did, until we started singing. By the end of the class, he was having just as much fun as everyone else. Our group included six children and four adults, who all were fascinated with our instrument of the week – the Kalimba.

Hello Dundas Gooch!

Today was the first class at the Dundas Gooch residence, and boy was I EXCITED! It has been a while since I have led an RSF class and I was looking forward to making some new friends.

I was able to connect immediately with a young child, age 3. She requested a few of her favourite songs and had such a vibrant, energetic personality that I couldn't help but giggle and smile through the entire class. The moms in attendance were also lovely and sang along, participating fully. We sang through quite a few songs (Roly Poly, Hands Together, Hands Apart, The Wheels On The Bus, Row Row Row Your Boat, Crocky Crocodile, Old MacDonald, Little Green Frog, Mr. Sun, Zoom Zoom Zoom). I also sneaked in a couple songs to prepare for Halloween Week (Pumpkin Pumpkin and Five Little Pumpkins)!

For the instrument of the week I did a general run through of how to play all the instruments from the jam bag. Afterwards I brought out an instrument called a cabasa. It is a percussion instrument with loops of steel ball chain wrapped around a wide cylinder. The cylinder is fixed to a long, narrow, wooden handle. It provides a metallic "ch ch ch" sound when shaken or twisted. We passed it around pretending to brush our teeth using the cabasa to imitate the sound of a toothbrush.

Moving along to the jam, we sang through a couple of my favourites (Brown Eyed Girl, Stand By Me, Three Little Birds). All the participants were smiling and singing. Some of the young ones were even dancing! The parachute was a huge hit and we sang about all the colours we could see (Red, Yellow, Green and Blue Parachute Song) as well as the stars up above (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star).

I truly couldn't have asked for a better start at Gooch! Feeling very thankful this Thanksgiving.

Singing Away the Monday Blues!

Considering the large number of participants, we still had a very productive class! One of the moms who has been there the longest (over a year) really helped by belting out the tunes with her daughter. I think having one mom who sings well was inspiring to the others, as participation was at an all-time high. We began the class with a series of songs about the body: One Finger Keeps Moving, Head and Shoulders, Put Your Finger in the Air, and Sticky Bubble Gum, and then moved on to transportation songs: Wheels on the Bus, Row Your Boat, Zoom, Zoom, Zoom, and Walk and Stop. The class ended with awesome versions of Day-O and The Lions Sleep Tonight.

A Great Turn Out

A wonderful turn out for class this evening at Robertson House! Many new faces, and everyone who came last week returned. All the moms were enthusiastic and sang along loudly, and a lot of the children were singing too, which I loved to hear. I taught everyone the Little Green Frog song, and the moms all laughed out loud as I squished my face then stuck my tongue out. I'm glad I provided some amusement for them! Drums were the instrument of the week. There are only a few at the location, but the kids did an exceptional job of sharing them today! At the end of class, I gave out four CDs, and reminded moms to return in two weeks. Looking forward to continuing classes after the Thanksgiving holiday, and hope attendance stays up!

Busy Babies!

Today's class involved a fairly wide range of ages (well, a wide range for Jessie's) with kids between 6 months and almost 3 years old. This certainly didn't stop us from having a good time together, especially since all the kids were actively engaged in our songs! We started off with some simpler songs to engage our smallest ones, like Open Them, Shut Them and Roly Poly. Later, we moved onto some songs where our older participant could get more involved: we sang Listen to the Water and she had a great time giving me names of animals that live on or near the water. Our busy little class loved parachute time so we spent an extra bit of time with the parachute, first with everyone underneath, and then with everyone on top – it was a big hit!

Hello!

You know it's going to be a great class when you walk in the front door and hear Hello! being sung to you. It was a mother who had been at a previous session. Unfortunately, she couldn't stay that day, but we had nine children and four adults who added their voices to Clap Your Hands, Now Sing 1, 2, 3, Alice the Camel, 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, 10 Little Fingers, and Shake It Baby, Shake It.

Lifted Spirits

A great second class of the session at Robertson this evening. Most of the moms and children from last week returned, which I loved to see, and one new mom came with her daughter. There was a feeling of excitement and commitment to participation right from the beginning of class. I reviewed some songs from last week like Roly Poly and Old McDonald and added in some new songs like Clap Your Hands Sing 123 and Here Comes Crocky. I think everyone really enjoyed Elephants Have Wrinkles as well - the children had fun swaying their arms and making elephant sounds. I did tambourines for instrument of the week and the jam ended on a strong note with everyone singing and playing along to De-oh. At the end of class I received some song requests for next week and one of the moms came up to me to say that she was happy she came today because she was sad and her spirits had been lifted through the music. I was overjoyed to hear that and told her that that's what music does on a level we don't even realize. I hope to bring an opportunity for moms to feel that way in every class. See you next week Robertson House!

Learning Through Song

Monday was a jam packed musical adventure. The children were mostly two and under, so my aim was to deliver songs for the wobbly toddler. We started with Wake Up My Hands, One Finger Keeps Moving, Put Your Finger In The Air, and then moved on to Clap Your Hands Now Sing 1-2-3, Tickle Song, and The Grand Old Duke of York. Then it was time to get up and move around with Shake Your Sillies Out, Zoom Zoom Zoom, and I've Been Working On The Railroad. The jam included Three Little Birds, ABC, and In the Jungle. I enjoyed watching numerous one year olds “grooving to the music” and watching their moms react as their children attempted to keep time by stomping and clapping. Some pretty adorable moments all around.

An Enthusiastic Group

We were a small group for the first day of the fall session at Birkdale. But the five children and three adults sang along enthusiastically to Sticky Bubble Gum, BINGO, Six Little Ducks, and Jamaica Farewell, among others. As usual, the parachute and jam session had people swinging and dancing.