My littlest kiddos came in after a rambunctious round of PE outside that had been punctuated by a lot of larger students also outside--who were out of control and interfering with their group. As a result, my littles were escalated and upset and out of sorts when they came to me. So my emergency calming protocol kicked in. Every class includes our hello song, a movement activity, an instrumental play activity, and a boo k , capped by a goodbye song. Today we still included all those components, but changed them up a little. First we dimmed the lights. I have 3 rows of lights, and I turned off 2. Next, I began fingerpicking on guitar, using the chords for our hello song. Once everyone was seated and settled, we began our hello song intervention, but I shortened our greeting practice, decreasing demands but increasing support in order to improve emotional regulation. We did some gentle movement imitation, using scarves to this relaxing AniMusic video ....
School-Based Music Therapy Ideas