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I love using a big blue scarf for gross motor therapeutic music interventions! There are endless possibilities. The blue scarf can be an ocean for felt fish to swim on top of. Children can lay under the scarf and watch the fish “swim” above them to relax. I have even used the scarf inside of a gather drum to hide objects that a child has to find during the song.
Here are some ways you might use the big blue scarf during music therapy sessions or at home with a child:
Gross Motor: Use beanie baby or other stuffed fish in the middle of the scarf and sing “Itty Bitty Pool” while moving the scarf. When you get to “boop, boop, ditum, datum, watum, choo”, fling all fish up in the air on “choo”.
Cooperation: Put a lightweight balls on the scarf and play a game of passing the ball to one friend at a time without having the ball roll out of the scarf.
Relaxation: Direct children to lie under the scarf. When the scarf moves up, children will take a deep breath in. When the scarf moves down, children will blow out their breath.
Prepositions: Mentioned last week, children can be fish going over, under, around, in, and through the water.
Body Identification: Pretend the big blue scarf is a blanket and cover up different body parts. The song that I use to identify body parts is a traditional tune you’ll recognize (more appropriate words for children though) and was adapted from an observation passed down from my internship site of AMTA’s current president elect.
Here is the link to “It’s Cold Outside”
We’d love if you take the time to share your favorite songs to sing with big canopy scarves! Thanks for reading, and happy Friday.
Toneworks Music Therapy Services LLC. 