Favorite Things Friday: Themes

I am going to be moving to a large music therapy clinic pretty soon - don't know for sure when this is going to happen, but I'm assured that it's going to be soon - and I've been thinking about what types of things I want to do once I have the space to do them. The room I'm moving to has four times the size that I have now, so I can spread things out and use that entire space for therapy things. I will be able to split up large groups of students who should not be near each other into smaller groups. I will be able to take out my brand-new parachute pieces and make large parachutes that we can use to launch balls into the high ceilings without fear of knocking out ceiling tiles. I will be able to have certain areas of the room for certain TMEs - sensory, large instrument, group, listening stations, and other center ideas.

I love using themes to organize my thought processes when I am thinking through sessions plans. My new space will lend itself very well to using themes for everything in the session plan (but themes go out the window when it is time to do therapy, if that is what my clients need!). My love of themes shows in the sing about song series that I've written (if you want more information, check out this link). As a result, I've been starting to think about multi-sensory centers, themes, and TMEs that I can use with some of my younger students.

I have a theme around mittens, and I am starting another about monkeys. For some reason, I am doing things with the letter M. Hmmm. Anyway, I have been collecting ideas and TMEs centered around these ideas. These themes are different from those in my sing about song series. These are specifically designed for a bunch of familiar clients who have specific needs. I want to figure out ways to store stuff for all the centers in small boxes.

So here are my current thoughts about mittens...

Mittens - sorting mittens and gloves; using mittens and gloves to pick up different materials for a sensory experience; The Three Little Kittens (I wrote a song!) with sequencing lyrics and pictures; The Mitten stories with an animal puzzle to go along with the story; listening to music with winter theme to support idea that we wear mittens when it is cold...

I am rapidly turning into my mother who does this type of thing all the time. She has the garage space to store everything as well. (I don't!) By the way, does anyone want a large tote box full of rubber ducks? Mom's got bunches and bunches and bunches of rubber ducks.

I don't know what I will end up doing with all of this, but the creative impulses that are happening are wonderful. If I can't use any of the ideas that I come up with, I am sure that someone will. Anyone want two session plans based around mittens?