Music: That's What You Are Game

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At Regional Conference last year,  I bought a great book that I haven't really been able to look through until recently.  It is called "101 More Music Games for Children".  This book is amazing for school groups of any age!  It is fantastic because it splits up categories by type such as listening, improvisation, rhythm, relaxation, etc.  It also has an index that shows the age group that the activity is best for.  These activities can be used with children preschool age all the way up to high school and any age.  There are even some great games such as musical card games that would be great for adults in the geriatric setting or medical setting.

Today I want to highlight one game that would be great for middle school, high school,  or adults.  This game is called "Music:  That's What You Are".

Common Goal Areas:  Emotional expression, Leadership, Eye Contact, Unity, Listening, Attention

Objective: Given Instruments or a sound of choosing, clients will watch the conductor for their cues when to play within the activity.

Method:

1. Put instruments in the middle of the circle.
2. Clients will stand in a circle around instruments.
3. Clients will choose to make a sound of their choosing (body percussion, voice, etc.) or pick an instrument in the circle.
4. Explain that you will be the conductor first and point to the client when you want them to play, and show them specific gestures for continuous play while you choose others to play along.
5. Begin by pointing to one person and make a gesture for them to continue and add on more players.
6. Stop some players and choose others.
7. Continue this process for a minute or two adding 2-4 people at a time.
8. Stop all play and choose a new conductor.
9. If time allows, let each student have a turn to conduct the whole group.

This intervention can be varied in many different ways.  You can choose just to have them use everyday items for their instruments, just their voices, instruments, or a combination of everything.  Also, you can choose how many people you want to play at a time.  You could have 2-22 people playing, make up your own gestures for specific meanings, and design the group to your liking.  With adults in a geriatric or rehab setting, you could have them all sitting and keep the same process.  Have fun making this activity your own!

Memory Song Game

    This will be my first blog that is talking about one of my intervention ideas and I am veryexcited.  I created this intervention to meet the needs of severaldifferent clients.  The great thing about this intervention, is that itcan be used for practically any goal area that needs to be met.  First ofall, I will explain what this intervention is. 
    The picture above showsthe visual that is needed for the intervention.  All that is needed forthis visual is white cardstock, a laminator and laminating sheets, clipart fromthe internet, and something to color the pictures with if you don't havecolored ink like I do.  First, go to Microsoft Word and create a box thatwould be a good size for holding a picture.  Then copy that box four timesonto the page.  Then, find four pictures from google images for the topicof your choosing.  I chose animals for this particular set.  I alsohave another set of fruit visuals.  Then place each picture inside thebox.  After you do this, go to a new page and do the same exact thing withfour different pictures.  After you have finished creating all of yourcards, print out two sheets of each page.  This ensures that you have twoof each animal, fruit, etc.  So in the end, you will have 16 cards whichis plenty.  I actually split my up into groups of eight to make iteasier.  When they master that set of animals, I use the other set ofanimals, and eventually add them together for the full 16.  So after youhave printed our your cards you are ready to laminate them.  Place aboutfour cards per laminating sheet.  And then you are finished making yourvisuals!  Now let's talk about what to do with them. 
    First,  show theclient the cards by holding two pairs of each animal.  Explain that theirare two of each.  Then, place all cards face down.  Have the clienthelp you shuffle them up.  This is usally a fun way for them tohelp.  Most really enjoy being able to help at something.  Then, placethe cards in rows of two with four cards each as shown above.  Next, youwould sing the "Memory Game Song" with the client.  I will posta video below to show you how this song goes.  For now, here are thewords: 
Let's play a memory game (3x's)
And say/spell all the words. 
The reason I have say or spell in the line is because I haveclients that need to work on speaking the words, and then I have clients thatneed to work on spelling the words.  Either way the game works forboth.  After you sing this part, you ask the client to pick their firstcard.  If their first card is a bird, you sing the song again likethis: 
This word is bird (3x's)
It is spelled B-I-R-D (Bird) 
So above is the same melody except at the end you spell eachletter while singing.  In parenthesis I have (Bird).  If you areworking on having the client speak the word, you say bird at the end instead ofadding extra words.  This gives the client a chance to speak the word 3-4times.  So while singing this part, you would pause each time you get tothe word bird in order to allow them to speak the word. 
So now you ask them to turn over a second card.  If this cardis the bird again, you would be finished with that stack and applaud them whileputting it to the side.  If it is not a bird again, you would go throughthe same process and sing the above verse with the correct animal.  Youcan go through the whole game like this until they have found all of thepairs. 
    I think this game isgreat because it targets so many different things.  It works on memory,fine motor skills, academic processes (spelling), and communication.  Youcan pretty much change up the intervention to fit your needs.  Have fun figuring out your own style!  Enjoy!