Hello, Toneworks readers!

Anusha here again, board certified music therapist and marketing specialist here at Toneworks Music Therapy. It has been so fun writing blog posts again after the several-month break since I was the Toneworks intern! Today, I want to share with you an intervention that my kiddos have been LOVING recently. I have used this intervention, with different adaptations, in nearly every single classroom that I see from early childhood through high school special education. How’s that for efficient?!

If there’s one thing I know about Minnesotans it’s that we are highly skilled at convincing ourselves that spring is coming, even when there’s not an ounce of warmth in sight. Here in Minnesota, it’s been snowing for the past two days. Today is April 4th, and we have fresh snow on the ground! Not so fun, right? So, this intervention has really been getting me through the past week. I’ve broken down this fun activity into two different interventions, suitable for two different age groups/areas of academic need. These interventions can be used with a group or in a one-on-one session, and they’re easily adaptable to fit the individual needs of your clients or groups. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Intervention #1: Five Little Flowers

Description: This iteration of the intervention, is excellent for younger students or those who are working on basic academic skills like color identification and counting to five or ten.

Materials: Decorative Flowers. If you wanted to, you could use real flowers, but that would be pretty bold of you! A variety of colors is helpful–I got mine at Michael’s. (Pro tip: download the Michael’s app and receive coupons regularly, including awesome deals like 50% off a regularly priced item or 30% off your entire order!)

Instructions:

1. Hold one flower in your hand and show it to your participant(s). Prompt your participant(s) to count how many flowers they see and identify the color.
2. Sing the “Five Little Flowers” Song (lyrics below)
3. Add one flower to your “bouquet”.
4. Prompt participants to identify the color of the new flower.
5. Count with the group to see how many flowers there are now.
6. Continue until you have five flowers in your “bouquet” and participants have successfully counted to five (or whatever number they might be working on counting to.)
7. To close out an intervention like this, I like to go around the circle and ask participants “Which flower is your favorite?”. Depending on the participants’ individual goals, I might prompt them to touch one or verbalize “I like the [color] flower.”

Five Little Flowers Lyrics:

One little flower growing in the ground (Show the number “five” on fingers)

It said “Oh no! What’s that sound?!” (Put hands on face and show ‘surprised’ expression)

Down came the rain, (Rapidly tap knees)

And out came the sun, (Lift hands in the air to meet above head)

And one more flower joined the fun. (Add one flower to bouquet)

Intervention #2: Colorful Flowers at the Flower Store

Description: This iteration of the flower intervention is suitable for older students or those working on a math IEP goals of counting and identifying money.

Materials:

• Decorative Flowers (Same as above)
• Pretend money
  • I have a set of felt money that I scored in the Target dollar section (along with several other amazing felt goodies) that I LOVE using in sessions.
  • For my students who are a little more advanced in identifying money, I prefer to use images of  actual money. Using visuals that look like the “real thing”, makes the intervention a little more challenging and further reinforces their understanding.

Instructions:

1. Hold a bouquet of flowers in your hand and show it to your participant(s).
2. Sing the “Flower Store” Song (lyrics below)
3. Prompt one participant to choose one flower and trade the correct amount of money for the flower.
   • Sometimes I “charge” the same amount of money to everyone. Other times, I adjust the price to appropriately challenge the participant.
   • If the participants require additional support, I might write the price on a white board in addition to verbalizing it, or even show them the appropriate nomination and prompt them to match it with their own money.
4. Prompt the chosen participant to identify the color of their flower, whether it’s verbally or with a communication device.
5. Prompt the other group members to fill in the blank: “[participant name] bought a flower for [price] dollars.”
6. Repeat song until all participants have had a turn to buy a flower of their choice.

Flower Store Lyrics:

Colorful flowers at the flower store, 

Red, green, purple, and many more. 

Along came [student name] with [insert price] one day, 

And (s)he bought a flower and took it away. 

Thanks for reading! Let us know if you use this intervention in your clinical work–we can’t wait to find out how it goes!

See you next time!

Anusha Ramaswami, Board-Certified Music Therapist and Marketing Specialist, Toneworks Music Therapy Services LLC