Waiting for Snow

One of the main reasons I adore working with Elementary aged kids is because of the themes the teachers use.  It is always so much fun for me to find music/activities that go along with their classroom activities.  The theme for the week was "WINTER" and appropriately so.

The song above is called "Waiting for Snow" by John McCutcheon.  (He actually has a set of Season recordings).  With this song, I asked my students to lie down on the floor.  I dimmed the lights and started the music.  Relaxation time!  I have a white canopy scarf/sheet and with the assistance of the teachers, we waved the scarf up and down over their bodies and faces.  Their smiles were priceless.  Some people feel that relaxation is not appropriate for such young kiddos, but when you see how they instantly snap in to being relaxed you find that is such a false statement.  Their breathing calms and they become almost trance-like.  However, some classes found it so stimulating.  That isn't always bad, but when they grab at the "snow blanket" it does present a problem.

For the next activity, all you need are cotton balls, parachute, and a recording of "Sleigh Ride" or "Let it Snow".  The students absolutely loved this activity.  It turned in to a snow ball fight, more or less.  It was so incredible.  Just seeing these kids laugh and have fun makes my day.   This activity was a great way to help the kids with impulse control.  They found that if they shook the parachute too hard and too fast the cotton balls flew out of the parachute.  That is why it turned in to a snow ball fight.  However, by the end of the activity the kids held it together and kept the cotton balls in the parachute!

What to do with the older kids?  I stuck with a winter theme and used white loufas (sp?).  We practiced keeping the beat to the song by passing the "snow ball" on the beat.  I used "Sleigh Ride" for this group as well.  By the end of the activity there were 3 "snowballs" going at the same time, focusing their attention.  

For an academic activity, I used the song "Let it Snow".  I wrote the sentences on long strips of poster board.  Each sentence was broken in half.  After we listened to the song, each student read their sentence strip.  The goal was for each student to find the missing half of their sentence.  This worked on reading but it really hits on the socialization domain as well.

Thank you Drake and Rihanna.  I'm sure you are now wondering what I'm talking about?  I used "What's your name?"  I sang "Hey nah nah What's your name" etc, etc as I kept the beat on a paddle drum.  After I finished the chorus, I demonstrated playing the rhythm (syllables) of my name.  We sang the chorus each time.  Every student had the opportunity to play their name rhythm and their peer's name rhythms as well.  =)

This week has been great taking over my classes.  My really bad bad student did an incredible job today.  I found that he needs positive feedback/ complimenting constantly.  I was so happy.  Music Therapy makes me happy.