What do you like about Halloween?

Here's a song for Halloween!
Pumpkins, costumes, candy too.
I like Halloween, how about you?




I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Colors, Colors!

Here's a song I use to help teach colors. I have used this song several different ways so far.



One way is to use the song in a class or group, and use scarves of different colors or different colors of paper that the students hold up when their colors are called. For lower functioning students, I recommend focusing on fewer colors at first. The chorus, (Colors, colors, everywhere, you see them everyday. Some are here and some are there. Let's sing about our colors today!), can also be sung into Big Mac switches or other voice output devices in order to give nonverbal students a turn to "sing".

For higher functioning students, I also have each object mentioned in this song printed out on a picture card and I show them the card and they tell me the color. Once students are experienced with the song they can move to sequencing the pictures in the order of the song. I've also made a power point presentation of each object in the song and added the song to the power point. If a student chooses that power point, we watch it first and then I ask "Wh" questions about each color, (i.e. Which one is Red?, Which one is the color of a lemon?,etc.).

I got the idea for the lyrics about colors for this song from another song on the internet, so of course, I will only be using this song for educational purposes.
Hope you're all having a good week!

Listen, then play!

Hello!

Here's a song that focuses on listening skills with rhythm instruments.
(If you scroll down and read my previous post today, you'll understand this post even better!)

The rhythm instruments featured in this song include: egg shakers, bells, paddle drum, and clatterpillar (I LOVE the clatterpillar! :)).



Listen, then play.
Listen, then play.
Listen for your instrument, then you play.


If you have any comments and/or questions, feel free to contact me at morewithmusic@gmail.com
Thanks for stopping by!

Listen and Do

Hello readers!
It's been awhile since I last posted, but I've been busy with work and life and wanted to be sure to post today.

I wanted to share a song that I wrote this week. It's titled, "Listen and Do". I use this song as a simple listen and then do song. I use rhythm sticks or drums and the students in the group are encouraged to follow the leader, who at first is the music therapist and/or teacher.


Here's the song and I hope you might be able to use it!


Listen and Do,
Listen and Do,
Listen to the rhythm then you play it too!


While I write this, I also can think of a couple of other ways to use this song.
One way would be to change the lyrics and have the song concentrate more on speech and/or vocalization.
The song might go like this...

Listen and Do, Listen and Do
Listen to my sounds, then you make them too.
"Ba, ba, ba, ba" (or whatever sound that particular student is working on).

The second way would be another way to enforce following directions with fine or gross motor movements.
The song might go like this...

Listen and Do, Listen and Do
Watch what I'm doing (or watch me move) then you do it too.
(some actions you could do include: pat head, pat knees, blink eyes, stomp feet, rock side to side, etc.)

Clouds

Clouds are so interesting to look at. No two clouds are identical...just like people. :)

I wrote this song to help teach students about clouds, (after much researching the internet and NASA sites about types of clouds, how they are classified,etc). Clouds are classified by shape, color, and height. They are classified for where they are located in the sky: low, middle, high.

I have to say, this song was very tricky to write! I decided to make it as simple as possible and write about the three basic types of clouds: Cirrus, Cummulus, and Stratus clouds.

I plan to incorporate several visual pictures of the definition of a cloud (i.e. picture of clouds, sun above clouds, moon over clouds, water droplets), and a visual for the three types of clouds.

So, take a minute to listen to the song and if you have any questions or comments, you can email me at morewithmusic@gmail.com








Have a great weekend!

I have a pumpkin

Here's a song I wrote this week. It's a song about a pumpkin transforming into a jack-o-lantern. I work in several elementary classrooms where they are working on learning to identify their shapes (mainly circle, square, triangle, rectangle for now), and parts of a face. So, I opted to write a song reinforcing shape recognition skills and parts of a face, within a song about a pumpkin.




I have a laminated file folder with a large picture of a pumpkin on the right, inside of the folder. On the left I have several laminated black shapes attached with velcro to the folder.

I also designed a power point presentation for this song (for my severe profound classes who use a smartboard in their classroom). Each slide features the pumpkin with an additional facial feature (triangle eyes fly in first, then circle nose, then square mouth). Then for fun, the jack-o-lantern spins during the last verse of the song. The kids really enjoy watching it!
On another day, I might ask the students what shapes they want to use for eyes, nose, mouth, etc. and create a totally different looking jack-o-lantern.
Hope you enjoy!