Tot School: Week 2

This weeks class was Music time. It was so much fun and the best part is the kids were all worn out by the end. Brooklyn is taking a great nap as I write. 

Here is how I set it up and what I did:

1. Pick out 15-20 songs that the kids will love. Make sure a lot of them have actions the children can learn to do. I will list all the songs I picked below.
2. E-mail parents and ask them to bring an empty plastic water bottle and some scarves or ribbons.
3. Purchase and blow up one balloon for each child.
4. Set up "What's in My Basket" game. I filled up one easter egg for each child with something different. I used coins, pasta, marshmallows, cereal, rice, beans, etc. Anything I could find in my kitchen that would make noise when you shook the egg.  Each child gets to come pick one egg, shake it, and guess what's inside. Depending on your age group you can have them count how many of the objects are inside the egg. The kids each loved having their own turn.
5. Then start off with a fun action song to get the kids in the mood to move and sing. I started with "If You're Happy and You Know It" since I figured most kids would be familiar with that.
6. After that I went through about 6-7 songs varying the activities for each song. We varied between hitting balloons, having the kids dance underneath the parachute (blanket) while it went up and down, doing the actions to the song, or shaking a musical instrument. I just gathered musical instruments my daughter has.  
7. We then took a break and made our own musical instruments. We put pinto beans inside the water bottles. The kids really got to work on their fine motor skills and they loved having their moms help out. At the end we put on the caps and they had their own musical instrument.
8. At this point we went through the rest of our songs (or as many as you can with the time left). We started off with a song that would allow us to use our new instruments. It was wonderful to watch them make music out of something they had just made.
9. We ended with the song "Happy" by Pharell. The kids and moms all took scarves, balloons, and/or musical instruments and we just danced and went crazy to get any last bit of energy out. It was so much fun and the kids were laughing throughout the entire class. 

Tips:

1. Don't be afraid to act goofy. The kids will feel comfortable if you are having fun and singing along. I definitely got a workout in dancing with the kids for 45 minutes. 
2. Know the words to the songs you choose. I even tested some of them out on Brooklyn and picked the ones she responded best to.

Resources:

1. Songs:
1. Wheels on the bus
2. Itsy Bitsy Spider
3. Once There Was a Snowman
4. Happy and You Know It
5. Popcorn Popping
6. Ring around the Rosie
7. Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush
8. Patty Cake
9. Here Comes Thumbkin
10. Old McDonald
11. This Old Man
12. I Know a Chicken
13. Twinkle, Twinkle
14. ABC's
15. I'm a Little Teapot
16. Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
17. Baby Shark
18. Shake My Sillies Out
19. The Animal Sounds Song
20. Happy
2. I found my favorite YouTube videos of the above songs and went to www.youtube-mp3.org and converted them in to MP3s. I put them in an order I liked and put them on my iPhone so I could easily play and pause as needed.

Here are some poorly taken pictures of our set up! I obviously need work on my photographer skills..ha If you have any questions about anything, please let me know! I'd be happy to help.

Ballon basket
 (You can also see my music bowl. I had a maraca, a toy, some balls, and then we used the bowl and a wooden spoon as a drum.) 

Music Making Supplies. If a kid didn't have a water bottle they could make a little drum like the square one sitting next to the bowl.

What's in my basket game. 

Blanket out so the kids know where to sit and all the toys lined up on the side for easy access. 

Some of the scarves we used to dance with!