Skip to main content

Northern Lights Adaptive Art Part Three!

Our final step for our Northern Lights adaptive art project provided some icky, sticky fun in the form of DIY texture paste!  I used the first recipe provided here at My Little Craft Things.  I mixed it beforehand due to time constraints, but some of my students would have really enjoyed mixing it up, too!  Here is a shot of my first batch. 


We used a spoon and spread the thick paste along the bottom of our scene, talking about snow on the ground as we did so.  We also dabbed our spoons all over each our project, to add snow falling from the sky.  


I attempted adding glitter to the paste, but it just mixed in and was covered up, so we sprinkled glitter across the top after we spread it on our paper.  I LOVED the intense texture of this finished piece.  Between the paste, the fringed trees, and the scraped, multicolor painted backgrounds, this produced a really engaging finished piece for my students, with a lot of depth.



I also loved that this project provided a lot of opportunities to practice functional skills such as fine motor skills and reality orientation.


Plus, they're just beautiful, and each one is unique, the very best part. <3


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Everyday Advocacy

Or, Top Ten Ways to be an Effective Music Therapy Advocate in the Workplace... But can I confess? I think these would work in any profession! 1) Be professional. Be on time, with an appropriate appearance and demeanor for the facility you are working in. Follow facility guidelines for charting, communication, scheduling, etc. Be friendly with everyone on the staff--no one is beneath you, and everyone can help you! 2) Know when to talk. Be open to teachable moments--those random hallway conversations or tangents during meetings where you can pipe in knowledgeably with a little nugget of music therapy gold. 3) Know when to zip it. Don't be preachy. Of course you're excited about music therapy and its benefits, why else would you be doing the job? But sometimes it is best to let your work speak for itself. People will notice positive results, but if you are constantly achatter or seen as exaggerating, you may drown yourself out. 4) Actively seek ways to add value ...

Book Review: Grateful Giraffe, a Yoga Story

I recently had the opportunity to review The Grateful Giraffe, by Giselle Shardlow.  It is a sweet book featuring a variety of animals corresponding to yoga poses for children.  I read the book and did the yoga flow with my kids one morning, and they really enjoyed it! Giselle has included tips for how to use the book and how to use yoga in general with kids, and I loved that! There are illustrations of kids performing the poses on each spread, which is very helpful for young ones who need information in as concrete a manner as possible.  I also really enjoyed the flow--it was one that I could probably teach to my kids to use without the book eventually.  We added a simple mindfulness component to the rest pose at the end.  As we lay in rest pose, we talked about five things we could see, five things we could touch or feel, and five things we could hear.  It was a nice way to bring closure to the activity and add in mindfulness. There is an extr...

Movement Ideas with Music, #1: The Parachute

I finally got a parachute!  It has taken me way too many years to acquire one!  In fact, it's been a windfall year for parachutes--a 12' parachute was donated to me and a 6' parachute was finally found at a super affordable price that fit my budget.  I'm really glad it worked out that way, as I need the smaller one for my tiny groups, but the big one is great for my big groups and my big kids! After check-in, I like to begin my groups with a fun movement activity.  This energizes the group, increasing their attention and motivation for the course of the session, and setting the stage for whatever work we will do later.  Sometimes it's just something fun, and other times it is directly related to other goals we will address later in the group. This is a simple activity that is paired with a relatively recent pop song, so I find it appropriate to use with all ages of children.  Grab your parachute and a copy of " Shake It Off " by Taylo...