Scarves are such a fun prop to use with students! There are so many ways you can use scarves and various skills you can work on with them! We have two scarf songs for you to check out this fall: “Blowing in the Wind” and “Swirly Whirly Scarves”.
Here are some ideas for your back to school to make planning a bit easier and start this school year off right!
A prop I particularly love are movement scarves. Movement scarves are a versatile tool for engaging children in fun and creative movement.
Lemonade, Lemonade is a step-by-step fingerplay song about making this refreshing summery sweet treat!
We had some weekend visitors stay at our house not too long ago and they brought their sweet 18-month old. He was sick, missed a nap and was overstimulated after a long day in the sun. Predictably, he had a rough time calming down for a nap. Before long, it escalated to him being completely inconsolable. Within minutes, he was fast asleep. The method I used is something I've used time and time again with music therapy clients and my own daughter.
I'd like to think that the first 6 months of my daughter's life were only blissful and carefree... uh, nope. It was HARD. She was a preemie with sensory issues that she (mostly) outgrew, but the sight of a ceiling fan could send her into an I-WILL-SCREAM-AND-NOTHING-WILL-CALM-ME meltdown that would simultaneously send me into my own special kind of meltdown.
It's no coincidence that I am so passionate about helping parents and educators find the right music that can help kids through life's (inevitable) challenges. Being a music therapist who worked with kids with sensory needs set me up to be the ideal parent for my own daughter. The process was FAR from perfect, but we learned a lot together.
Something I didn't expect??? Music helped ME in a miraculous kind of way.
I have always loved lullabies. They're my absolute favorite to sing, write and play. I recommend picking one special lullaby to sing to your child over and over again throughout their childhood (recordings are okay, too, but live singing from a parent is the very best, according to music therapy research). For my daughter, that lullaby was a version of "Stay Awake" from Mary Poppins. My daughter was so used to that song as a "cue" for sleep that to this day, she yawns right when I sing the first few notes.
