Winter in Miami is palm trees, 75 degree weather and tank tops.

It’s pretty blissful.

But I have to admit I get a little envious when I see people on Facebook posting their pictures of the snow falling at night lit up by the street lights or kids playing outside in the snow.

Because we don’t get to experience true winter I try to bring a little of the “up north Winter” into my music therapy sessions in January and February.

This month, for our winter theme, here’s what we’ve been up to during music therapy and my developmental music classes:

Winter

  • “Snowflake Counting” – I wrote a song about counting snowflakes 1-5 (See picture above of my homemade snowflakes. One of my clients told me she wanted “one with a belly button!” Ha!)
  • “Snowflake Scarf Song” – Clients move white scarves up and then down like falling snow…slowly first and then faster and faster as prompted by the song.
  • Book ‘n Song to “First Day of Winter” by Denise Fleming – This can be sung to the tune of “Twelve Days of Christmas.” It’s great for working on memory, sequencing and new vocabulary words.
  • Snowman Song with movements to the tune of “I’m a Little Teapot” – I’m a little snowman, short & fat, here are my buttons, here is my hat. When the sun comes out I cannot play, I just slowly melt away. (lyrics found online). I like to incorporate some piggyback songs into my developmental music classes so when the lyrics are posted parents can easily sing along!
  • Snowflake Dancing Song – Children dance like snowflakes as prompted in the song  (spin around, fall slowly, fall quickly, melt away when the sun comes out!)

I love planning to a theme because it inspires me and challenges me to think of new creative ways I can target my client’s goals.

It’s been fun to put a little dash of winter in my music therapy sessions!