Grab a FREE Musical Jeopardy Template for use in your music classes and music therapy sessions.
A Pirate Creative Listening Experience for Middle School Students – See how you can use the soundtracks to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies to give students the opportunity to do some creative imagination and work on expressive communication.
“Old Town Road” To Target Therapeutic Goals – Here’s how to use the popular song to work on sustained and selective attention, impulse control and following directions.
Combining Music + Art: A Hawaiian Theme – Bring out your leis and your ukuleles. In this post you’ll learn how to facilitate a Hawaiian-themed music and art experience.
The Noun Rap (Yes, You Read That Right!) – Rhyming rap lyrics + a cool hip hop beat make for the perfect recipe to teach common and proper nouns. MP3 download is available for this one!
Everything is Awesome (The Lego Movie + therapeutic goals) – Find out how you can use a song from The Lego Movie to work on social/emotional and communication goals.
How To Use Rap Tracks When Your Clients Have Lost Focus – See how rap tracks help organize and refocus your group, and learn how to create your own original rap tracks.
To Use Recorded Music in Music Therapy…Or To Not Use Recorded Music?
“What Do You Do?” A Social Skills Song for Elementary Students. Sheet music + MP3 are available so you can use the song in your sessions and classes this week.
Stay On Top Of What’s New In Pop with a Pop Song Mini Pack – Click to find out all the details!
Halloween-Themed Auditory Perception Training Exercises – See how you can use The Ghostbusters Theme Song and The Monster Mash to work on attention and perception skills (like listening and following directions).
Spooky Music Listening for School-Age Students – Find out three creepy classical pieces you can use to work on improving listening skills and sustained attention, and to practice using adjectives.
The Costume Rap {for tweens & teens} – Learn a simple rap to facilitate verbal & nonverbal communication skills during Halloween (MP3 available!).
Need to target auditory perception skills in your sessions? Add this one instruction to your instrument songs.
Dive into this 3-part series of Camping-Themed Session Ideas:
1) A Camping We Will Go – See how we roasted marshmallows with rhythm sticks over a drum to work on motor skills, sang camp songs to work on expressive language and sang a marshmallow counting song to work on math skills. Read on to find the songs I used and how you can facilitate these activities with your clients as well.
2) A Camping We Will Go…Some More – Singing in rounds to work on selective attention…playing rainbow handbells and singing “I Love the Mountains” to work on divided attention…all the details on these camping-themed activities (and goals!) are here.
3) A Camping We Will Go…With Our Senses – Marshmallows used for olfactory stimulation and lantern lights to work on visual tracking? Those are just a few of the sensory-based ideas that are part of this camping-themed session plan.
Click here for a free Nutcracker Listening Guide – Perfect for use in music classrooms and music therapy sessions with school-age clients.
Movin’ & Groovin’ in Music Therapy ~ Part 1 – Watch this video to see how I combine music + movement to help my client practice identifying shapes.
Movin’ & Groovin’ in Music Therapy ~ Part 2 – Watch this video to see how I allow my client to jump and move to music while we practice identifying – AT words.
Click here for a FREE Halloween Rhythm Combos PDF – This musical experience targets expressive language, auditory perception skills, direction following AND impulse control.
Amp Up Your Work on Auditory Perception Skills – These skills are critical for children so they can improve their ability to listen, discriminate sounds, and tune out distractions in the classroom. Check out all the ideas here and watch video demonstrations.
Addressing Academic Concepts with Kids – This post is a round up of videos and songs where you can learn how to target specific academic concepts in your music therapy sessions.
Fun With File Folder Games – Learn how you can create fun, visually appealing file folder games for your sessions with preschool and school age children.
Frosty Session Ideas + The Snowball Chant – Grab some winter-themed session ideas that work on parts of speech, direction following and motor skills.
How To Make the Nutcracker Cool – See how I used listening sheets, movement activities, instrument exploration, and the nutrocker to engage my clients in a Nutcracker-themed session.
Intimidated by Using Improv as a Music Therapy Intervention? Try this.
Graduation Day – Click to see the lyrics of the song the children wrote for their Graduation performance.