Fun Friday: Spontaneous Themes

You know how I had no idea what I would do with my 30 minute groups on Wednesday? Well, I came up with something that seemed pretty successful - always a good situation to find yourself in!

I sat in my office space and just thought and thought. I had a stack of books that I had to put away, and I decided that a singable book might be a good way to get music going in a very hot environment. So, I went through the stack of books and found one that I could expand upon. I selected Groovy Joe: Ice Cream and Dinosaurs as my book for the week. It is not a song book (as far as I know), but there is a song affiliated with the book (I did not download it), so it lent itself well to an improvised song/chant with a background beat.

I kept up the dinosaur theme and showed my clients a magnetic play set of dinosaurs that I purchased from the Dollar Tree store many years ago. I sang/asked them to choose their favorite from the pictures. Most of them selected brachiosaurus as their favorite. Mine is triceratops, so I shared that when it was appropriate to our conversation. In the meantime, the other clients continued instrument improvisation to dinosaur songs from Spotify.

I have written these things down and completed a TME for the singable book. I also have created a master template for all singable books so I don't have to recreate the bones of this procedure each time I find a new singable book. This is my new TME system - templates for things that I will use over and over again.

I have other things that would have fit in with this theme really well, but I am not that organized... yet. My quest is to continue to organize the stuff that I have already into these theme lists. I know that I have dinosaur name rhythms cards that I made (link to my TPT file here) but I have no idea where I put them. They were not in the card boxes that I have labeled. So, I have more work to do on my organization quest.

This quest is helped by my current work at home. I am moving things back into the recently water-ravaged closet and library. I keep finding things, and I am trying my best to keep up with an inventory while I am putting things back in their new places. (I have too much stuff. Does anyone want any of it?? I'll send it to you!! Seriously!)

I love using themes for some of my music therapy interactions. I do not use themes very often, but I might need to do more of them since this last part of the week went so well - especially during our summer sessions. I have plenty of things to use during the seven weeks of our extended school year. I am just not that organized... yet.

(I have to include the ... yet every single time to remind myself that this is a quest in progress.)

I have today off, so I am going to keep working in my library room. I also need to go to the library and get my permanent card. After that, I think I will use my movie pass to go see a movie...

Happy Friday!

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