"It's a great day in the mornin'! It's gonna be a great day!"

Today was a fabulous day.  I have two classes on Friday, SNK (special needs kindergarten) and SNP (special needs pre-school).  The SNK's are CRRRRAZY.  For real! They are all over the place all the time.  Today my supervisor was going to be getting in to the class late because she was flying in from Chicago, Oprah show none the less.  This meant that I was given the chance to start the class and do a few activities with them.  These kids have horrible impulse control issues.  They are up and down and in and out.  If there is any other way to be in a chair, they'll figure it out!  With these kinds of kids you have to be at it all the time. Don't stop! It makes it worse.  However, I did great because I was able to handle "crowd control" and carry out a pretty good first half of the session if I do say so myself. =)

What made this day great took place in my SNP class.  I'm not sure if I mentioned in a previous blog, but I have 3 little boys in this class.  Two of them are non-verbal.  One of the non-verbal boys is on the verge of talking.  My supervisor and I have been discussing how we know it's coming.  He will be talking before this year is over.  When I sing with him and request him to say something, you can just see his brain working.  His little mouth starts moving like he is trying to say something.  Today I was doing "10 Little Turkeys" and after each verse one of the boys had to pull a turkey from the board and count the remaining turkeys.  My little cutie patootie said "ONE!" as clear as day.  I about fell out in the floor.  It was so incredible.  His teacher said earlier in the day he had said two colors very clearly as well.  It is so awesome to see the students making progress.  That is such a milestone for the student....and myself!

Thanksgiving Activities

Thanksgiving is the theme in the schools for the next two weeks.  I'm all turkied out already!  Here are a few ideas for you to get tired of ;-)

The all time famous "Turkey in the Straw"- What can you NOT do with this song?!?

Try a structured movement activity.  I found this to be the most engaging with my middle school and elementary groups.  My goal was to simply have the students imitate my movements. 

Another way you can use this song is for a rhythm activity, obviously this needs to be with higher functioning kids.  Use thanksgiving words to connect to rhythms.  Examples below:

Another activity for turkey day is, not sure of the exact title, the Thanksgiving song.  These are the lyrics:

Turkey on the platter

Gravy in the bowl

Bread in the basket 

*Clap* Bless my soul!

This can be used as a chant or song.  Sing/ chant through a couple of times.  Start a discussion on what the students like to eat at their thanksgiving meal.  For example, I would say "I like to eat sweet potatoes."  The next part chant:

Thanksgiving dinner!

What should we eat?

Tasia will bring the sweet potatoes 

and we'll bring the meat!

As you can see, it's a great way to get students to express themselves.  For those non-verbal kids, and even some of the verbal ones, use pictures of different types of foods for them to pick and choose.  This has been a great activity for me this week!  

Hope you all enjoy!

What a wonderful world

Sing it Louis!  I love this song and it is a fabulous activity to use in Music Therapy sessions.  This song is a great song for signing.  I picked out simple words with simple signs.  For example, trees, green, red, roses.  Very simple.  I also have found that aslpro.com is an excellent resource.  If you can't understand picture demonstrations of signs, this site has videos.  So, check it out!

Funny story for the day:
Today was a very rainy day.  My supervisor had her boots on.  One student said, "I...like...your...big...booty" LOL  We think he was trying to say I like your boots, but that's what came out. haha.

Do it with grace

So, yesterday (Monday) I was having a blast with one of my high school groups. I was doing a song called "Thankful" by Jonny Lang. We were learning sign language for select words in the song. One of the words was "Breath" but one student kept saying "Breast". No matter how many times I tried to correct her she kept saying "breast". Finally, all the students caught on to what she was saying and everyone started to laugh, including myself and my supervisor. Shortly after this, the stool I was sitting in shattered beneath me. Some how I managed to remain in the seated position in mid air. haha. The class didn't know whether to laugh or see if I was ok. My supervisor said "You handled that with such grace" to which I replied "Trust me. If you fall, trip, and break things as much as me you have to learn to be graceful." Such an exciting way to start off the week.

A stressful week.

Greetings followers.  My good friend shared a brutally honest fact with me today. She said, "Tasia, you are slacking on your blog".  haha. So true.  I'll try my best to do better.  


This past week was so stressful.  When I get stressed I typically try to ignore it and I am usually successful.  However, my mind ignores the stress but my body embraces it.  I get an incessant twitch in my right eye. Then I get this weird swollen taste bud bump on the tip of my tongue.  Not to mention, I just want to eat and sleep. I've managed to keep my eating healthy through the week, but what can you do about a twitchy eye and a bumpy tongue?  I really think a few days at the beach would cure my problems.  


Something extraordinary happened last week.  In an earlier blog I may have mentioned a high school student, higher functioning, who zeroed in on me.  He clearly did not like me and was constantly in a bad mood.  I sincerely don't know what happened, but a couple of weeks ago he came in to the session in a great mood.  (I'm thinking it was the Thriller dancing that made him happy because he loves to dance and is great at it).  The next week I saw him in the hallway and he talked to me and wanted to know all about music class that day, "Are we having music today? What are we going to do? " etc, etc.  His attitude towards me completely changed.  It is amazing.   Last week he came in to class in a bad mood, but I've learned how to tap in to his emotions and find what he needs.  All he needs is for someone to be interested IN him.  He needs someone to help and be patient with him.  I plan on continuing polishing the student/therapist relationship.  I can't wait to see how things turn out when this is all said and done.  


Speaking of high school, my higher functioning class is currently writing their own personalized rap.  After the words have been composed they are going to use Garageband to lay down a beat and rap!  They will love it!  This past week we finished most of the rap songs.  Two of my students in particular wrote a couple of lines that I wanted to share.  My creative student in the class wrote "I am me and I am you".  The sweety in the class wrote, "I might be scared but I'm not afraid".  These simple little lines, in my opinion, are so deep and meaningful.  Then you have the kid who writes "I like to rap T.I.".  haha. I can't wait for the students to finish this project.   


Incredible things are happening during this internship.  Looking back on myself when I started my undergrad in Music Therapy and looking at me now, I am quite proud of how much I've grown.  This internship is preparing me for what I have wanted to do my entire life: to help others using music, my passion.  

So tired...but so worth it!

My favorite class on Monday is a high functioning high school class.  They are so awesome.  One of my students said "Miss Tasia, you have the purtiest smile that I have ever seen".  Haha. I love these kids.  The same student asked me if I was voting and I told him I wasn't down here because I was from out of town.   He apparently didn't like that answer because he simply turned around and walked off hahaha.  

This week a lot of the Pre-K and Elementary classes have been using an apple theme.   My favorite activity is one that involves sensory stimulation.  I'm using two different colored apples, red and green. Visually, they see the different colors of apples.  I know that there are also yellow colored apples that you can use.  For touch, the students get to feel the apples and explore the smooth or rough skin of the apples.  For smell, I bought a macintosh apple liquid scent from wal-mart.  It is a very strong apple smell.  Lastly, and my favorite, for taste I used sour apple spray candy.  The faces these kids made were priceless.  It's such a great activity.  It also helps a lot of these kids with expressive language.  Not every kid likes sour candy!  Remember, anytime you use any thing that involves food, make sure there are no allergies!