When I come up with new activities for my sessions at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy, I often consult the teacher's lesson plans. Not only do they give me lots of great ideas for new song topics, but it ensures that my sessions are directly lining up with and supporting the classroom curriculum. This week, some [...]
Auditory Stimulation In honor of the beginning of Spring (although it always feels like Spring in Miami!) I'm continuing my series on Sense-ational Activities. Sense-ational activities are those that target the five senses. I've shared activities that provide olfactory stimulation, tactile stimulation, and multisensory stimulation. Today's post will focus on an activity I use to provide auditory stimulation. [...]
I love my job. I'll just say it. I have been employed full-time as a music therapist at UCP's Early Beginnings Academy since 2006. I remember when I first started the job thinking "This feeling will pass. It will become mundane." But it never did. I still wake up in the morning and am excited [...]
Today I'd like to share one of my most popular songs, and it's about...BODY PARTS! I use this song frequently with the children I work with who have special needs and it's always a hit. For older children, you can make the song more complex by using body parts such as: neck, shoulder, back, and [...]
"Every week had 7 days, every week has 7 days!" The 'Days of the Week' Song is often heard being sung through the hallways of UCP's Early Beginnings Academy. For my preschool and Kindergarten children, this song teaches some very important concepts: - Every week has 7 days - The names of the days of the week [...]
What do you do? The idea for this song came about when I was working with a child with autism, providing individual music therapy. I found that it was easy for her to learn academic skills (numbers, colors, lettters) because of the rote memorization involved to learn the information. However, when it came to questions about how [...]
Olfactory Stimulation At UCP's Early Beginnings Academy, I work with many children who have a diagnosis of severe and profound intellectual disability. For these children, stimulation of the five senses is very important. In my previous Sense-ational Activity post, I shared a song and activity about providing tactile stimulation. Here's an original song I wrote [...]
In light of the excitement surrounding my recent project Rockin' and Readin' at the Library and Rockin' and Readin' at the Library PLUS I thought I'd continue with my theme of early literacy skills, reading, and books. Today's Book 'n Song post is about a book called "My First Book of The Body" by Chuck [...]
I am very pleased to announce that Rockin' and Readin' at the Library is back!! I started the program last year with my colleague and friend, Amber Ewers. The program will begin running in December and we will be providing music therapy sessions at various library branches throughout Miami-Dade County. Yahoo! The sessions will focus on early [...]
Tuesday November 8th was opening day for our Halloween Musical, entitled "In the Woods." Many of our parents, grandparents, and family members showed up to support the children (and take lots and lots...and LOTS of pictures). I have never been so proud of my children! They were fabulous! To catch up, check out The Making [...]
