Music Therapy Mailings - I Really Love This Subscription!

I received a package in the mail yesterday from Music Therapy Mailings. This is something that I treat myself to - my subscription to this service. It is always fun to see what is included in my envelope from Iowa - it changes every month so it is always new. There's a bit of anticipation involved, and the things included in my envelope usually spark some creativity in my therapeutic music experience (TME) process.
www.musictherapyworks.com
Too much to hold in one hand!

This month, the envelope included rainbow highlighters, an owl-themed storybook with cards to work on number and color recognition (with the story), some Easter egg stickers, a sign, and a convenient file to keep all the cards in. I already have plans for the book and the number/color recognition TME idea. For my groups, I will have to make larger visual aids, but that is easily done. 

I like getting these things and ideas in the mail. As I was driving home yesterday, I thought, "Ooh, I should be getting my envelope soon," and then the letter carrier knocked on the door! I ripped into the package with enthusiasm. (Sometimes the envelopes are flat, but this one was very bumpy.) I took out everything and then just looked at it. I always take a moment to just revel in the creativity of another music therapist - it is always inspiring. At first, I didn't know what the highlighters were, but upon further exploration, I figured out what was going on and appreciated the novelty.

I am going to take the Hoot book and the small visual aids and turn them into a file folder activity and group-sized visuals so more of my students can use them at a time. I'll use yellow file folders to indicate cognitive/academic tasks as I put the visuals together. I will need at least 4 copies, but I have some ideas, sparked by the work done by Tracy at Music Therapy Mailings. I'll try to remember to post pictures of the finished products when they are done - give me some time. I'll put a deadline on my calendar RIGHT NOW. How does a month sound for a deadline? Scheduled. Now I have a month to develop a file folder activity to go along with the book. There are many ways I can take this from simple book to TME. I have a melody line in mind right now - got to get to the voice recording app to get that down. After that, I will transfer it into my Finale Printmusic program, and then develop the full TME for my file.

What could we do with this book? We can act it out, we can match colors, we can match numbers, we can match numbers to the appropriate colors, we can play hide and seek, and we can think of many other things we can do. With a melody, the book becomes a song and the song can prompt many other things for my clients. I could write additional verses to the melody to shape the song into something beyond the book. 

Thank you, Tracy at Music Therapy Mailings, for the monthly inspiration. You will never know the effect that you have had on my creativity.

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