I just love St. Patrick’s Day, and finding ways to incorporate that theme into my music therapy sessions with children with autism and adults with developmental disabilities.

There are so many fun ways to work leprechauns, shamrocks, and Irish music into our sessions to target therapeutic goals.

Check out this post, creatively titled “St. Paddy’s Day Session Ideas,” to learn how to play the crowd favorite game I created called “Irish…or Not Irish?” There is a FREEBIE in that post, so you can download the materials and use this game in your sessions right away! In this post you’ll also learn how to “play a rainbow” using your rainbow colored instrument sets.

In the also cleverly-titled post, “MORE St. Paddy’s Day Session Ideas,” you will get just what it says – more creative ideas to implement this week and next. You’ll learn how to incorporate Irish music into your sessions – both up tempo jigs and more mellow piano tunes.

In addition, I share about my FAVORITE instrument to use to enhance my St. Paddy’s Day Sessions.

It is the oh so versatile…..

Duck quacker.

I use the duck quacker to be the sound of the leprechaun laughing! This instrument has been, across the board, for the past 20 years, one of the most engaging instruments for my clients.

Any time they hear the sound, they stop what they’re doing, perk up, and listen.

So, I use the novelty and interesting sound of the instrument to engage my clients so they can work on their therapeutic goals.

In the post, you’ll learn about the game I play called “Where is the leprechaun?“, how I utilize the canary stick, and what goals can be targeted.

And if you want even more creative inspiration, check out Elevate.

Elevate is an email idea subscription designed to help you infuse creativity and FUN into your sessions with school-age & teen clients with autism & related disabilities.

You’ll earn 10 pre-approved CMTE credits per package.

These resources will super charge you and get you ready for your music therapy sessions and classes this Spring.

There are three packages to choose from: the Teen Package, the Attention/Perception Package, the Holidays & Themes Package, and the popular Combo Pack.

Each package is approved by the Certification Board for Music Therapists (CBMT) for 10 continuing education credits.

You’ll receive an email with new musical experience ideas in your inbox each month for six months.

Check everything that’s included in Elevate HERE.

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I don’t know about you, but I love a good session planning theme.

I find that having a theme helps me feel more inspired, more creative, and more excited about session planning in general.

So when I started getting requests for another Elevate Email Idea Subscription, the wheels began turning for what to offer next.

I’ve been facilitating Outer Space / Planet themed sessions this week, and I feel energized and excited. We’re doing creative listening to The Planets Suite by Holst, using rhythm sticks as rocket ships, and doing intergalactic rhythm combos.

I know I have cool things planned that the students will love, and I can see the students feed off of that positive energy.

This got me thinking that a package where I share the holiday and theme ideas that I’ve been using with my elementary, middle and high school-age clients would be perfect to offer next.

I’ve got themed ideas for every topic you can think of (all age appropriate for school-age and teen clients of course) – patriotic, going to the movies, friendship, camping, the Olympics, the Nutcracker, Encanto, and alllll the holidays and seasons.

Here’s a post from way back in 2016, where I share my creative process for session planning based on a theme (to be sure I stay totally goal-oriented).

And, here’s a post where I share how I incorporate dance, movement, and arts experiences into my themed sessions for middle and high schoolers.

If you love a good session planning theme as much as I do, I’ve got great news!

Next week (the week of June 26th), the brand new Holidays & Themes Package for the Elevate Email Idea Subscription will be available (at a discounted rate and for 7 CMTEs!), kicking off with a patriotic theme just in time for Fourth of July.

Stay tune to your email and Insta for all the details!

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“Halloween-themed attention & perception training exercises.”

Kind of a mouthful, isn’t it?

That’a just a fancy way of saying that we’re going to use Halloween songs to work on attention and perception skills (like listening and following directions).

Here’s an idea that can be used with clients of all ages:

Play a spooky Halloween song (either a live or recorded version) and instruct your clients to play their instrument and listen for a key word or phrase. When they hear it, they should ______________ (you fill in the blank!)

For example: Play the “Ghostbusters Theme Song” (everyone will be jamming – clients, teachers, and therapists alike!) Clients will play a rhythm instrument and listen for the word “Ghostbusters” in the song.  Every time they hear that word, they should switch instruments with the person next to them.

Another example: Play the “Monster Mash” (another favorite that will have everyone tapping their toes!) Clients will wave their scarves and listen for the phrase “monster mash” in the song. Every time they hear that phrase, they should wave their scarves up high in the air.

This gives clients the opportunity to work on:

• Selective attention – They have to tune out everything else going on in the song and in their classroom to hear that specific word or phrase
• Listening & direction following – There’s a lot to follow! They’ll need to remember what word or phrase they’re listening for, and what to do when they hear that word or phrase
• Impulse control – They’ll have to wait until they hear the word or phrase before they can switch instruments or shake up high (or whatever other instructions you gave them!)

That’s a lot packed into a simple Halloween musical experience, right?

If you need more Halloween-themed interventions, click here to visit the Holidays & Seasons Session Planning Page and scroll down to October.

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Although I have a storehouse of session ideas (especially when it comes to Fall!), I always like to keep things fresh and bring in new musical experiences for my clients.

My mom recently sent a book in the mail for my daughters (who are ages 2 and 4) and they love it, but as soon as I saw it (and read it) I knew it would be PERFECT for my music therapy sessions.

The book is called “The Leaves Are Falling One By One” by Steve Metzger.

You can sing the book to the tune of “The Ants Go Marching One By One.”

This singable book is great for working on the following goals:

• Expressive language (sing “Hurrah! Hurrah!” or the entire song)
• Math skills (counting 1-10)
• Motor skills (wiggle fingers and move arms up then slowly down to simulate leaves falling; or use scarves!)

You can also bring in leaves (real or fake) and use them for counting throughout the story. I think your clients will enjoy this singable book as much as mine have!

BTW – will I see you at conference in Dallas next week? I hope so!

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I just returned home from a lovely trip to Boston with my little one for a family get together. The weather was beyond beautiful and we enjoyed some delicious BBQs in the backyard.

Now that I’m home, I’m ready to wrap up the little camping series I started two weeks ago.

You can catch up on all the camping-themed music therapy activities I shared for the school-age population (grades K-5) here and here.

Today I’ll wrap up by sharing the sensory-based activities I included for the students who are sensory-learners.

Olfactory – We smelled marshmallows and campfire-scented candles (they do exist!)

Visual – We turned off the overhead lights and looked at the lantern light as it moved around the room (great for working on visual tracking).

Tactile – We touched soft, squishy marshmallows, sticks for roasting food over the campfire, and crunchy leaves from the hiking trail. We felt stuffed animal bears and raccoons.

Auditory –  We listened to nature sounds: cricket rasp for the crickets (of course!), frog rasp for the frogs (of course!), quacker for the ducks, and thunder tube for the bears.

Gustatory (Taste) – For those without allergies, we tasted yummy marshmallows and made s’mores (my absolute fave!)

For each sensory experience above I sang an original or piggyback song, or sang one of the traditional camping songs I mention here.

I hope you’ve been able to use some of these experiences in your sessions! Leave a comment below to let me know your favorite one.

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Last week, I shared a post on a Camping Theme I’m working on with my K-5 students in music therapy.

We started off with a camping hello song while looking at pictures in the book “Down By the River.” Then, we roasted marshmallows over a campfire of red, orange and yellow scarves in a drum, and counted yummy sweet-smelling marshmallows. (More details here).

Here’s how our camping theme continued:

4. Singing Camp Songs around the Campfire – This little book right here is one of my most prized possessions (along with the rest of the Wee Sing series) and it’s where I got my inspiration for the songs we should sing:

I remember being a young girl singing out of this book while my family was on long car rides through the woods. There are SO many wonderful song choices, but these were the ones we sang:
“We’re On the Upward Trail”
“The More We Get Together”
“Kookabura”
“This Land is Your Land”
“Make New Friends”
“We Won’t Go Home Until Morning”

I also selected a few camp songs that work well to sing in rounds because it’s a fantastic way to work on selective attention. The 4th and 5th graders were up for the challenge! “I Love the Mountains” is a great option, as well as “Zum Gali Gali” and “The Frog Round.”

Goals – To increase expressive language and selective attention.

5. “I Love the Mountains” A Few Ways – There is no song more quintessentially camp-ish than “I Love the Mountains.” It also happens to be the perfect song to target a variety of goals.

Rainbow Handbells – The chord progression for this song is repeated: C/am/dm/G7. Distribute bells to students so you create each chord. I found it helpful to give each chord group a number. The bells that made up the C chord (C and E) were #1; the bells that made up the am chord (A and high C) were #2; the bells that made up the dm chord (D and F) were #3; and the bells that made up the G7 chord (G and B) were #4. (That accounts for all the bells in the rainbow handbell set). While we sang, I held up a card with number 1-4 to cue each group to play at the correct time. Each student played their bell two times when cued.

Rainbow Resonator Bells – Same idea as above. The chord progression is repeated, but this time you can cue individual clients to play: C four times (for the C and am chords); D four times (for the dm and G7 chords), E four times (for the C and am chords), and F four times (for the dm and G7 chords). This will match up perfectly with the chord progression.

Goals – To increase sustained, divided and selective attention.

Songwriting – I brought in a dry erase board and prompted students to fill in the blanks with their favorite camp items and foods:
I love the _____________
I love the _____________
I love the _____________ (etc, etc.)
When all the lights are low. Boom de adda boom de adda boom de adda boom de adda.

The students had so much fun with this songwriting experience! A few of my favorite lines were: I love tacos, I love mosquito bites, I love bears, I love fireflies. Gave me warm fuzzies as we sang :)

Next week, I’ll wrap up our Camping Theme by sharing the activities I used for the resource classroom, which is made up of children who are sensory learners.

Stay tuned next week for that!

Also, I’d love if you could leave a comment below and let me know your favorite camp song to sing!

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I’ve recently been beefing up my arsenal of activities for the school-age population (grades K-5).

Two years ago I started working at a school for children with special needs, and it’s been a great exercise in creativity for me!

I have lots of ideas for working with children and teens, but not many that are specifically created for the school-age population.

(There was the Noun Rap, though! Remember that?)

Now that the school is in summer camp mode, we have a different theme each week. This week’s theme is Under the Stars, and the activities are all about camping.

I’ll admit, this one made me a little nostalgic. I was a Girl Scout and I spent many summers at sleep away camp hiking, singing songs around the campfire, and making s’mores.

So, I was more than a little excited to get to work planning camping-themed music therapy activities for my PreK and K-5 students.

Here were some of the hits:

1. Camping Hello Song + Book – To get the activities started in the right direction, we sang a camping hello song. I brought in a book I found at the library called “Down the River” by Andrew Weiner. Instead of using the words in the book as song lyrics, I chose to use the beautiful pictures to show the steps we take to start camping.

To the tune of “Farmer in the Dell” we sang:
A camping we will go, a camping we will go, heigh ho we’re on the go, a camping we will go.
We’re packing up our car, we’re packing up our car, heigh ho we’re on the go, we’re packing up our car.
We’re driving in our car…
We’re pulling on our boots…
We’re fishing in the lake…
We caught a great big fish…
A camping we will go…

For the PreK and K students, we did movements for each verse of the song (for example, pretending to drive a car). For the students in grades 1-5, we did rhythmic body percussion to keep the beat: pat / clap / clap. They got really into it, and it sure was a great exercise in selective attention for them to keep that rhythm up while I sang something different.

Goals – To increase expressive language and to improve selective attention.

2. Roasting Marshmallows and Hot dogs over the Campfire – When I said this idea out loud to my husband, I kind of laughed at myself because it sounded so silly. But let me tell you, this idea was a COMPLETE HIT! I put red, orange and yellow scarves inside a drum…that was our camp fire. Each student got one rhythm stick…that was their roaster.

Then we sang the Campfire Pokey (shared by various library blogs on the web)!

To the tune of “Hokey Pokey” we sang:
You put your marshmallow in, you put your marshmallow out, you put your marshmallow in and you shake it all about. Do the campfire pokey and you turn yourself around. That’s what it’s all about. Yum, yum!
You put your hot dog in, you put your hot dog out…
You put your ___________ (students fill in blank for what they want to roast)

Goals – To improve gross and fine motor skills.

3. Counting Marshmallows – This activity was for the PreK and K students only, since they were working on counting. I laid out ten marshmallows (real ones!) and asked the students one at a time to pick up a roaster (aka rhythm stick) and point to one marshmallow at a time as we counted.

To the tune of “Ten Little Indians” we sang:
1 little, 2 little, 3 little marshmallows,
4 little, 5 little, 6 little marshmallows,
7 little, 8 little, 9 little marshmallows,
10 marshmallows in a row. Yum, yum!

Goals – To improve knowledge of academic concepts (specifically, counting to ten).

We had so much fun during these goal-based activities. I love planning around a theme that brings back so many positive memories!

Next week, we’ll continue on as I share how I use the xylophone and handbells to facilitate singing camp songs. Stay tuned!

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Sensory sessions based on a theme are my absolute fave. Right now, it’s all about Fall ya’ll.

Although it never truly feels like Fall here in Miami (high today of 83!) I still try to get into the spirit of the season in my sessions. Using Fall and all the goodness that goes along with it as a framework for coming up with musical experiences helps get my creative juices flowing.

Here are some of the sensory experiences I’m using in my sessions this month:

• Fall scented candles: Apple cinnamon, pumpkin pie and pecan…mmmmm!
• Pumpkins and gourds: Bumpy ones, smooth ones, short ones, tall ones. You name it, I’ve got it.
• Leaves: Feel the crunchy leaves and smooth ones, and look at the variety of bright colors.
• Cinnamon  broom: Smell the cinnamon scent and feel the prickly bristles.
• Turkey gobbler: Work on auditory perception skills and localization by playing the gobbler in various locations around the room.

I’ve also brought these items into my elementary classes that don’t necessarily have sensory goals. We’ve used these items to work on expressive communication – using a complete sentence with adjectives to describe what they’re seeing, hearing and smelling. These experiences are also a great way to work on expanding their vocabulary as they describe various Fall items.

I LOVE Fall and will continue to bring as much of ‘it’ into my sessions as I can each year!

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If you’re a regular here at the Wholesome Harmonies blog, you know I LOVE a good themed session plan.

We’re getting to that time of year when theme ideas abound: there’s Harvest, Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Wintertime. I love all of it!

I find that when planning for my sessions, starting with a theme unlocks my creativity and allows me to come up with unique ways to help my clients meet their goals.

I also find that when I come into a session excited about what I have planned, my clients feed off that excitement and are more motivated to work towards their goals in the session.

Here are the steps I go through to come up with session ideas based on a theme:

Step #1: Choose a theme around on an upcoming holiday, season or time of year.

Step #2: Write down all the things associated with that theme. For example, for a Halloween theme – bats, pumpkins, spider webs, candy, costumes, Trick-or-Treating, etc.

Step #3: Choose a domain. I write down the main domain areas I’ll be focusing on with those clients: motor/physical, sensory, communication, social, cognitive, etc.

Step #4: Combine Steps 2 & 3. I look and see how I can use the items I came up with in Step #2 to address the needs of my clients in a specific domain area (Step #3). How might I use a cotton spider web to provide tactile stimulation? How might I use pumpkin seeds to work on counting? How might a use a song about bats to work on articulation of the ‘b’ sound?

Here’s a specific example of a theme I’m working on right now:

Step #1: Choose a theme – I love to do an Apple Theme in the month of September.

Step #2: Things associate with the theme – Apples, seeds, color red, color green, letter A.

Step #3: Choose a domain – There is a new group I’m working with that has needs in the cognitive/academic domain, specifically color identification and counting.

Step #4: Combine Steps 2 & 3 – Here are a few ways I can use those items in Step #2 to address the specific academic goals from Step #3:

• Song about identifying colors of the apples (red or green)
• Songs about: counting apples, identifying numbers on apples, or concepts of more or less apples
• Song about adding or subtracting apple seeds
• Book and Songs to apple books – “Ten Apples Up On Top” by Dr. Seuss, “Manzanas” by de Ann Burckhardt, “From Seed to Apple” and “Apples” by Gail Gibbons are my faves to use.
• Song about the Letter A

Those are just a few examples of how we can start with the theme of apples, and use that to generate ideas for addressing various academic concepts.

As a side note, if you have clients with sensory needs, apples are fantastic for this domain area as well. You have the smell of apples, the taste of applesauce, the feel of the smooth apples, and the crunchy sound of the apple, just to name a few ideas!

I can’t wait to dig into some new themed session ideas for the Fall and Winter.

Here are a few to get you started:

It’s Fall Ya’ll: Apples, Apples Everywhere

It’s Fall Ya’ll: Halloween Theme

It’s Fall Ya’ll: Turkeys, Turkeys Everywhere

You can also check out Sensational Songs & Activities: Sensory-Based Ideas for Music Therapy. In this E-Book I share multiple themed session plans. A Spooky Halloween, Winter Holiday, Fun in the Sun, A Trip to the Farmer’s Market, and It’s a Jungle Out There are a few of my favorites. Check out everything that’s inside the E-Covers right here:

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I love a good themed session, don’t you?

I like using themes because they help me think outside the box to find new ideas to use, and really inspire me to be creative in how I help my clients meet their goals.

This month, it’s all about the BEACH!

Here are some of the experiences I included in this themed session:

– Greeting each other by saying “Aloha!”

– Counting Seashells song – To work on counting actual objects (versus rote counting)

– Feeling Seashells song – To provide sensory stimulation for the 0-2 age group and to work on descriptors with the 4-6 age group. I sing “What does the shell feel like? Is it rough or is it smooth?”

– Beach Book ‘n Song – Using “To the Beach” by Linda Ashman

– Counting Fish song  – To work on numeral identification 1-5 (see picture!)

– Moving like ocean animals song – We move like the fish, dolphin, crab and octopus (see picture!)

For many  of the songs I either use my ukulele or set a reggae accompaniment beat on the keyboard and it really adds to the “beachy” feel of the session.

If you’d like a complete plan for your summer themed sessions, check out the Sensational Songs & Activities E-Book. You’ll find a Multisensory Beach Themed session plan, plus other themed session ideas and sheet music for your work with children who are sensory learners.

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