Question: How do you plan for over 200 individuals in a single setting (different classrooms) without loosing your cool?
Answer: Themes!
Believe it or not, almost every center, school, facility and even family has some sort of theme. I work in several school-type settings and it’s pretty easy to spot the themes here. In one center, each classroom participates in a “unit” lasting several weeks or months (for example: animals, colors, etc.) and then during those “transition times”, they are still “theme-ing”, most often in something seasonal. There is always a plan, because there is always a theme!
In another center, each month is a large theme that the entire school shares and each classroom recognizes however they choose. Each month-long theme has several smaller themes, a week in length. (For example, Monthly Theme: Jump Up, Sit Down and the Weekly Themes: Healthy Habits, Get Fit/Sports, Music/Dance).
So…
What are themes good for????
Planning
Regardless of the theme, our music therapy sessions always incorporate the same components, making it a routine:
Greetings/Closings
Movement
Goal/Learning Area Specific
Instrument Play
Finger Play or Sign Language
Having a theme makes all of this a game of matching and quite frankly, it cuts down the thinking process just a little bit 🙂
Psst. I have a Secret: All of the songs and activities that I have used successfully are listed and categorized on my computer. I do a search for a keyword within the theme and BAM! I have a list of songs with matching activities and therapeutic uses in front of me.
Planning this week was a cinch! The learning objective at one center was “The Body”. I was able to mix and match and come up with a pretty fun session!
Greeting: Shake a Friends’ Hand
Movement: Shake Shake Your Body (By Elizabeth Balzano)
Goal/Learning Area Specific: Put the Scarf on Your… (by Rachel Rambach)
Instrument Play: Egg Shaker Dance
Finger Play or Sign Language: Move a Little (passed down by my internship supervisor)
Closing: Hold Up Your Fingers (by Rachel Rambach)
Psst. Another Secret: I borrow A LOT! While I do write a lot of my own music for my sessions, and personal songs for some of my clients, I like to borrow songs from colleagues, mentors, friends and professional singer/songwriters.
What are themes good for?
Success all over!
In private music therapy sessions, my clients are always working on a goal. We don’t move on to the next step in our long term goal area until they meet and in some cases master the short term goal. We are continually working for success. Can you imagine doing the same song for the same goal over and over and over until they master it? In this case, using a theme gives us the ability to set our clients up for success and use their newly goals across a variety of areas by changing the song regularly.
Psst. Last Secret: Changing the theme or song regularly also helps us therapists from getting burn-out. Variety is key!
Do you use themes in your work? What are some of your favorite themes?
Check out some more theme ideas and reasoning at Music2Spark
I find themes also help me be more focused in what I take to sessions. Using your example – hand mirrors for looking at a face. They also challenge me to look at other ways I can use an object – breathing on a mirror to see if we can make our breath visible.
Thanks for recommending my site, too!
Absolutely JoAnn! Thanks to “theme-ing”, my carrying load has decreased! As always, thank YOU for the retweets and love!
Hi Meryl. I really enjoyed this post. You have some wonderful ideas that are good for any kind of teacher. When I taught elementary music in public school, I didn’t have any texts, so I made my own using whatever I could scrounge up in my classroom plus books and music in my personal library. Everything I did was based around a theme. And you are right. It does make things easier. I don’t know much about music therapy, but I’m learning everyday from the music therapists I have met over the net. Keep up the great work!
Wishing you a song in your heart,
Miss Leslie @ Music with Miss Leslie.com
Thanks Leslie! Themes are so great when you are without a set curriculum or resources. Yay for being creative!
You note that changing themes often can help keep interest/avoid burnout. How often should that be? A few months? Weeks? A certain number of sessions? What do you find works best for you?
Great Question Laura! It all depends on the person, the client and the contract. With my private clients, I am often switching themes monthly (giving about 4 sessions per general theme). With one of my major contracts, themes (or units) last for 2+ months. With my daughter and our family, we usually work on themes based on the season or the holidays, so it changes regularly.