This winter, it feels like my kids have had more snow days and snow delays than they have full days of school!

We’ve been embracing it, though. Yesterday we went snow tubing, and we’ve been enjoying ice skating and lots of sledding in our backyard.

All of my sessions with kids this month and last month have been infused with a winter theme, especially my Rockin’ and Readin’ sessions at the library.

Because the focus of these sessions is on literacy, I always make sure to include a singable story.

Last Friday, I was rockin’ and readin’ at the Harbaugh-Thomas Library in Biglerville, Pennsylvania. We did the singable story “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” by Bill Martin, Jr. and Eric Carle.

This gave children the opportunity to work on receptive and expressive communication skills. They followed directions to put their hand to their ear when I sang the repeated phrase “What do you hear?” and then sang the phrase along with me.

I also included the singable story “The First Day of Winter” by Denise Fleming in my recent virtual music therapy sessions with afterschool programs in South Florida. This story can be sung to the tune of “The 12 Days of Christmas,” so it’s easy for students to catch on, it has lots of repetition, and has opportunities for movements so students stay engaged.

While browsing the library shelves recently with my own kids, I found several NEW winter-themed singable stories and wanted to share them with you.

“Walking in a Winter Wonderland” by Richard B. Smith and Felix Bernard pairs perfectly with the song we are all familiar with, and has beautiful illustrations.

“If It’s Snowy and You Know It Clap Your Paws” by Kim Norman is based on the song “If You’re Happy and You Know It,” but gives it a winter-y twist. Again, this is perfect for early childhood classes and library sessions because the children and caregivers are already familiar with the tune and can easily sing along.

I hope these singable story recommendations give you some creative ideas for a musical experience you can add to your sessions this winter, or to cozy up and read at home!

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The temperature is dropping here in Pennsylvania, Thanksgiving is behind us, and I am ready to bust out ALL the winter musical experiences in my sessions.

I’m thinking creative movement, freeze dancing (of course), and creative listening to winter-themed classical music.

If you’re feeling inspired by the drop in temperature too, but need a little session planning boost, check out Elevate.

Elevate is an email idea subscription designed to help you infuse creativity and fun into your music therapy sessions with middle and high school students with autism and related disabilities.

It’s pre-approved by CBMT for 7-14 continuing education credits, depending on the package you choose.

There is a Teen Package, an Attention / Perception Package, a Combo Pack with both those packages (it’s the most popular right now!), and a brand new package for Holidays & Themes.

Subscribers who signed up for the Holidays & Themes Package are receiving a Winter Themed bundle of session ideas today, December 1st. (And you can too by clicking here!)

I had a blast putting this bundle together.

All the ideas are winter themed.

All the ideas are goal-oriented.

All the ideas are age-appropriate for middle and high school students.

And, all the ideas are fun, engaging, and COOL for this age group.

I’m telling you, I had a classroom full of middle school boys dancing like ballerinas to Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.

And, a group of 10 after school programs zooming in with me for virtual music therapy all engaging in a winter musical mad lib.

If you need a little creative boost, check out all the packages, especially the Holidays & Themes Package.

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Although many music therapists and teachers have gone back to facilitating in-person sessions, I am still 100% virtual.

I have to say, I am enjoying the additional tools and technology at my disposal.

One of the tools I am loving and frequently using in my sessions with school-age and teen clients is video.

In addition to live music making, singing, musical games, and composing on GarageBand, I also incorporate music videos for visual support, and to add a layer of creativity that will engage my clients.

Here’s how I do that –

Musical I Spy/I Hear: I’ll introduce my clients to a new genre of music and teach them about the instruments that typically play that style of music. Then, I’ll pull up a music video and we play Musical I Spy/I Hear. I invite my clients to call out when they see (or hear) the instruments we’re looking for.

This Fall I did a bluegrass version. I pulled up a video of a bluegrass band playing and clients identified the fiddle, upright bass, banjo, guitar, harmonica, and even the jug! The Fourth of July version of this game, along with visuals (and lots of other goodies!), is part of the Summer Music Therapy Session Planning Pack.

Visual Support: I’ve also been using music videos to offer an added visual support that takes an experience beyond “just” music listening (even though that can be extremely beneficial and effective). During my summer sessions, I’ll facilitate a Hawaiian-themed music and art experience. My clients will listen to traditional Hawaiian music and draw to the music.

The music I pull up is a video on YouTube of a relaxing beach scene. This visual gives my clients some inspiration and ideas of what to draw. (More details on this experience are part of the Elevate Email Idea Subscription).

As a way for my clients to relax and wind down at the end of our current winter-themed sessions, I’ll play a video of “Wintersong” by Ingrid Michaelson and Sara Bareilles. (The song is awesome – check it out if you haven’t heard it yet!) Along with the song, I show visuals of winter scenes and snow. I use these as added visual support to jump start a discussion about our favorite memories of snow and winter.

If you’d like to use these visuals during your own Winter-themed sessions, you can grab them for free right here:

Music Video & Song Discussion: I’ve often facilitated song discussion experiences, where I’ll choose a song about a topic that’s relevant to my clients, we sing the song, and then discuss it. (You can find creative ideas for how to do this in the Tuneful Teens 2 E-Book and in the Elevate Email Idea Subscription).

Once I shifted to virtual sessions, I started incorporating music videos and using those to lead into a discussion about the music, the video, or both. For example, with the holidays approaching, I found a truly awesome YouTube video of the song “Christmas/Sarajevo 12/24” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra paired with a holiday light show. We watched the video together (and I watched my clients’ faces in awe!) Afterward, we had a discussion about our favorite memories of decorating our houses for the holidays and driving around to see the lights on other houses.

“That’s Christmas To Me” by the Pentatonix is another great song that I’ve been showing during my holiday-themed sessions. The music video shows home videos of the singers when they were children. I use this song and video to facilitate a discussion about our favorite childhood Christmas memories.

Behind the Scenes Look: Finally, I’ve used videos to give a behind the scenes look into the making of a music video. In August, I facilitated a musical experience with a group of teens with autism, that used “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco. We sang the song and had a discussion about our high hopes for the new school year.

Then, I showed them a behind the scenes video of how the music video was created. (If you haven’t seen it yet, the lead singer walks up a sky scraper!) It rounded out the session nicely and was something that captured their attention and truly interested them.

To close out, I’d love to hear if and how you’re using music videos therapeutically in your sessions – either in-person or virtually. Leave a comment below!

And for more information on the Elevate Email Idea Subscription, click here:

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Last week I wrote a post that generated a lot of supportive comments.

The post was about the new year and how I don’t have any new, concrete goals for my business.

I decided to take the pressure off myself to achieve more in my business and instead focus on being present as a mother to my two little girls.

Don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot of big ideas for my direct service work and my online resources, but I’m giving myself grace if things take longer than I hope to come to fruition.

You can read the post and comments here.

Now on to some winter session goodies!

Here’s what I’ve been incorporating into my music therapy sessions this month with elementary and middle schoolers, as well as my teen clients:

Had To Have High High Hopes – Panic! At The Disco has the perfect song to get your clients jamming and dreaming about their high hopes and dreams for the new year. Clients, students, and teachers alike all LOVE this song and get really into it!

A Frosty Musical Mad Lib – Here’s a creative way to work on parts of speech with elementary and middle school students. My students LOVED this musical experience and asked me to bring in another Musical Mad Lib for next week’s session!

Freeze Dance – The ever popular freeze dance is something my clients and students love. We did two kinds – a freeze with instruments and a freeze dance with movements. This musical experience is the perfect way to work on improving sustained attention, impulse control, and direction following.

I’d love to hear what new year’s/winter musical experiences you’re incorporating into your sessions this month.

Leave a comment below and let us know!

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Earlier this week I had one of those really great session days.

Everything flowed, my students were totally engaged, and I got great feedback from the teachers and students alike.

I had brought in some New Year’s-themed interventions, which is how I like to start each new year with my school-age and teen clients. I think it’s as important for them as it is for us to remember we’re starting off this year fresh with a clean slate. Regardless of what happened last year, we can set goals for ourselves and come up with specific steps to work towards those goals.

I began the session with a musical experience I created called the “New Year’s Wish.” It includes an original song I wrote and a discussion about each client’s wish for the new year. Their wish could be: something they’d like to learn this year, like how to play basketball; someplace they’d like to go, like Disney World; or for older clients how they’d like to feel this year.

Our discussion generated some really interesting responses. One student wants to learn to play the drum set this year, one wants to go on a cruise and one said she wants to make 2019 even better than 2018 (love that!)

The New Year’s Wish musical experience is just one of the many included in the Tune In To Teens E-Course. Participants get the sheet music and MP3 for this song (as well as all the other originals), and have the chance to see a video demonstration. All these materials are right at your fingertips, allowing you to use the intervention in your sessions right away.

Following the “New Year’s Wish” song and discussion, I facilitated an intervention using “High Hopes” by Panic! At The Disco (my new song obsession!)

My students LOVED it. If you want to hear how I tied this song into the new year’s-themed session plan, hop on our mailing list today. I’ll be sending out an email shortly where you can see how I used this pop song therapeutically to address clinical goals.

It is NOT easy to find songs like this, that: a) have a positive message, b) have good, clean lyrics and c) are considered “cool” by our clients. So hop on the list now so you can see how to use this song with your clients right away.

I hope you’ve had a great start to your new year and that you’ve had the chance to make some New Year’s wishes for yourself as well :)

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A few weeks ago, I shared a musical experience I created called The Noun Rap.

I designed it for the 3rd, 4th & 5th grade students I work with at Children’s Resources Educational Center.

I figured, hey, if they have to learn about nouns, why not at least make it cool? (You can listen to what it sounds like here).

Following that, the teachers told me the students were learning about adjectives. I decided this was the perfect time to bring in one of my favorite musical experiences for school age kiddos – the Musical Mad Lib!

You did Mad Libs growing up right?

All I do for a Musical Mad Lib is choose a song, type out the lyrics of the song leaving blanks for some nouns, adjectives and verbs and ask the students to fill in those blanks with their own words.

Since we had a major cool down this week in Miami (we got down to the 60s!) I decided to use a winter fave, Frosty the Snowman. This is a well-known song and had plenty of opportunities where I could leave nouns, adjectives and verbs blank for the students to fill in.

They came up with some really creative lines…

Frosty the Snowman, was a slimy, cold soul. With a corn cob bike and a button nose and two eyes made out of chicklets.

…and they had even more fun singing those lines out loud!

If you work with school-age students that are learning the parts of speech, I recommend you try out the Musical Mad Lib.

When you do, leave a comment below to let us know what song you used and how it went.

The post A Frosty Musical Mad Lib appeared first on Wholesome Harmonies, LLC.

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:

• “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!

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