Feels Like Fall!

On the day after Halloween, I thought it would be appropriate to start the class with the 5 Little Pumpkins song from last week. To my pleasant surprise, many of the kids remembered the lyrics word for word, even going so far as to preemptively blurt out the next lines! This week everyone seemed quite excited by the songs with stops and starts, such as the Bicycle Song, Walk Walk Walk and Stop, and Shake it Baby Shake It. When one of the kids referred to one of these songs as being a game, all of a sudden some of the more reluctant ones started participating more eagerly. Framing them that way seems to be quite effective, and I’ve made a mental note as such. The children are also getting much better at sharing and putting away instruments during jam time, and it was all smiles by the end of class (as opposed to the occasional bickering over who gets which drum). Wonderful improvements!

Pumpkins and Witches!

We really got our Halloween groove on today by singing lots of songs about pumpkins, witches, wind, howling, costumes, and sleeping bats! Our little singers were especially great at sleeping upside down like bats, and then flying around once night came.

Halloween Fun!

I brought some Halloween fun to Birkdale today. I taught them some Halloween themed songs and brought the spooky-sounding thunder tube for the special instrument of the week. We even attempted to do some Michael Jackson Thriller moves during movement time, which the caregivers enjoyed.

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun and productive class at Ernestine this week. All the children were ready to sing when I arrived, and were excited to show off their Halloween costumes! The Halloween theme ran throughout the class, with Creepy Crawly Spiders, and Sleeping Zombies (instead of Sleeping Bunnies). I brought the thunder-tube as a spooky surprise instrument, and after practicing sharing with the bean bag, the kids were incredibly conscientious of each other when passing around the thunder tube. I can see they’re getting much better at sharing from week to week, and are ready for even more instruments of the week.

Sharing is Caring

Today I challenged the kids to work on their sharing skills. They did really well. We passed around the ball, then I introduced them to the special number of the week, which we also took turns holding and passing around. Then I brought out two chime bars and had the children practice hitting to the beat of songs and passing them around the circle. I was impressed by how well they did.

Hopping Bunnies

We have what can often be a very active group of 2-3 year olds, so the more active we can be in our singing, the better! Today we sang Sleeping Bunnies and once everyone got the hang of when to "sleep" and when to hop, then we couldn't stop! Even after four rounds of the song, those little bunnies could have hopped on forever!

Great Sharing!

I showed up to the shelter to a very excited group today. Unfortunately, some of the kids were being a bit rowdy beforehand and had been put in time out by the time I arrived, but hopefully they’ll be back and ready to sing next week. We started off with a small but attentive group of three, and people gradually filtered in as the class went on, which meant that we ended with even more energy than we started with. I brought the wooden frogs in today, and the kids not only loved them, but shared them around the circle without any fuss, allowing everyone to have a turn with them while we sang Little Green Frog, and 5 Green and Speckled Frogs.

Staying Alive

In order to keep the moms engaged today I decided to shift gears and use some familiar favourite songs during parachute time. We all enjoyed doing some disco dancing during parachute time to Staying Alive, and then flashed forward to the 1980s and shook the parachute out to Caribbean Queen by Billy Ocean. I demonstrated the chime bars today, and we practiced taking turns as we passed them around while singing Hurry, Hurry, Drive the Firetruck.

Small, but Mighty!

Another small but mighty class! The kids had so much energy at the start of class, so I quickly shifted gears into movements songs and we spent most of our time standing up! Once I got them to focus I had them sit and really exercise their patience by bringing out the ball, the number of the week, and the instrument of the week, as we practiced our sharing! We had an extra long jam session, and I could see the parents really enjoying themselves as well. We're on the verge of families attending for their 3rd time, so I really hope the CD gets them excited about the classes to come!

Singing in the Rain

The kids were a little tired today due to the rainy, gray weather. I went with their energy levels and we sang songs about the rain, the sun, and did the classic, The Itsy Bitsy Spider song. They livened up when we did Sleeping Bunnies. We experimented with the rainbow rope and tried The Wheels on the Bus.