Music and Movement: Valentine’s Edition

It’s that time of year again! Happy (almost) Valentine’s Day! For my first blog post as the new Toneworks intern, I thought I’d focus on a Valentine’s-themed intervention I led in some of our SPED classrooms this week. This intervention could be used to focus on a ton of different goal areas, including reading, gross motor, mirroring movements, sustained attention, turn-taking, social interaction…the options are endless!

What You’ll Need:

• Colorful Scarves
• Frame Drum or Tambourine with a head
• Heart-shaped pieces of paper with different scarf movements written on them (we used colorful card stock). Some examples could be:
  • Wave up high
  • Rub
  • Scrunch and pop
• A foam ball, stuffed animal, or anything else that can be passed around the circle as the “hot potato”
• A bluetooth speaker and an up-beat, love-themed playlist–feel free to use ours!

Set your group up in a circle, and begin playing the music. Start passing your “hot potato” around the circle. Whoever is holding it when the music stops gets to pick a movement card out of the drum. (It’s okay to pick and choose who the music stops on so everyone get a turn!) Turn the music back on and instruct the group to do the scarf movement all together. Repeat until all the movements have been performed, or all group members have been “it”.

This activity was a hit in our classrooms this week, and it’s easily adaptable for any skill level. To make it a little more challenging, simply throw in a few “free choice” cards and let the student pick their own movement for the group to perform. We hope you L-O-V-E this fun movement intervention as much as our students did! Happy Valentine’s Day!

xoxo,

Anusha Ramaswami, Toneworks intern