Sarah Niileksela MT-BC, Author at Bear Paw Creek

How to Use Bear Paw Creek’s Hoop Rainbow Streamers to Achieve Educational Goals

Sarah Niileksela MT-BC — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 20:38:23 +0000

How to Use Bear Paw Creek's Rainbow Hoop Streamers to Achieve Educational Goals

Hi! I am Sarah Niileksela, and I’ve been a board-certified music therapist for 20 (!!) years. In 2006, we moved away from my first job so that my husband could attend graduate school. I couldn’t find any work in music therapy. While working as an assistant at a childcare center, I decided to take matters into my own hands and formed my business, Sunflower Music. It has gone through a lot of different phases, but I have consistently worked with neurodivergent children and led early-childhood music groups in schools, childcares, libraries, and private settings.

One of my major contracts over the years has been working with school-aged students who have music therapy on their Individualized Education Program, or IEP. My role in the school setting is to help students attain educational goals identified by their IEP team through music strategies.

Keep reading to learn about how I incorporated Bear Paw Creek's Rainbow Hoop Streamers with Canva graphics to achieve educational goals.

Finding the Song and Creating the Activity to use with the Rainbow Hoop Streamers

As you can imagine, disabled and neurodivergent students have a HUGE range of needs. Goals are written to help meet those needs, and each student has a variety of special interests and preferences. To target these educational goals in fun, creative ways, I often have to create my own activities or find ways to modify and adapt existing activities. Adapting existing activities or modifying songs that I already know is ideal for decreasing time spent planning and preparing sessions. Which is usually far more extensive than the time providing direct services.

When I plan sessions, I usually have the student’s educational goals in front of me to guide the process. One evening this spring I was trying to decide how to target the following goal: By the end of the IEP year, when given 10 CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words and pictures, the student will use skills in reading to correctly read the word by matching the corresponding pictures and words with 70% accuracy.

Did I have a ready-made activity for this goal? Ha! Definitely not! I had recently used Lynn Kleiner’s version of Ruth Pelham song “Rainbow ‘Round Me” with Bear Paw Creek’s Rainbow Hoop Streamers in a storytime. The children looked through their hoop “window” to spot different things in the environment of all the colors of the rainbow. I’ve used this song for years and kids LOVE it! It’s so catchy and repetitive, allowing for quick learning of the lyrics and active participation either through singing and motor movement with the Rainbow Hoop Streamers.

How to Use Bear Paw Creek's Rainbow Hoop Streamers to Achieve Educational Goals Share on X

How to Implement the Music Based Activity

I thought, “I wonder if I could find a CVC word for each color of the rainbow, and then that is what my student looks for through her hoop streamer window?” Using Canva, I found graphics for the following CVC words, one for each color of the Rainbow Hoop Streamer:

jam – red
fox – orange
sun – yellow
bug – green
hat – blue
rug – purple

First, the student picked out the picture she wanted to include in the song. I would pair the word with the picture so there would be a visual association between the two. Next we sang through the song as follows:

(look through hoop of streamer)
Oh the jam outside my window is as red as red can be,
(find the red ribbon on the streamer to match to the picture)
Fiddle-dee-dee outside my window, the jam is red as red can be.
(move streamer in the shape of a rainbow)
Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow ‘round me
Rainbow, rainbow, rainbow round me

We sang through the song for as long as the student remained engaged, hoping for a minimum of three verses, which was easily met. She sang along with the song, smiled and pointed at the visuals, and moved with the rainbow hoop streamer. At the end of the song, I placed the picture of the target word and three choices of CVC words. I then asked her to look through her “window” to find the word that matched the picture.

A Modifiable Activity for Your Educational Goals

I’m thrilled to say this student loved the activity, and I’m also thrilled I didn’t have to learn a new song! The goal is to eventually put out all of the pictures and words at the same time for the student to pair. Once this is achieved, the pictures can be faded out to evaluate her ability to read the words without a visual cue. I can also continue to use the same activity and introduce new CVC words easily using Canva. If you haven't used Canva, it has an amazing assortment of free graphics that can be used to make the pictures.

This experience gave me the confidence and inspiration to modify songs that are already a part of my repertoire to meet a variety of educational goals. I hope that this example of modifying and adapting an existing song and activity is helpful to you, and it can be modified in any way that your students or clients may need!

Sarah Niileksela

"Singing Sarah" is an early childhood music specialist, board-certified music therapist, and owner/director of Sunflower Music. She graduated from KU in 2003 and has worked as a music therapist with a variety of populations, including early childhood, neurodivergent children and adults, and patients in hospitals and behavioral health units. Sarah has had extensive training on the use of music to teach literacy skills and has been asked to present on the topic to early childhood educators around northeast Kansas. Sarah is passionate about working in early childhood and wants her work to foster a life-long love of music and reading in children as well as help them grow and develop skills through the joy of active music-making. She has an awesome husband, loves KU basketball, and is passionate about dog rescue.

The post How to Use Bear Paw Creek’s Hoop Rainbow Streamers to Achieve Educational Goals appeared first on Bear Paw Creek.

The Airplane Song with the Connect-a-Stretchy Band

Sarah Niileksela MT-BC — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 14:53:01 +0000

The Airplane Song: Using Props to Connect with Children

The longer I have worked as a music therapist, especially in the early childhood setting, the more I appreciate the value of movement props like those created by Bear Paw Creek! I feel like they have really added to the fun and learning and promoted positive social experiences in both my childcare and community-based early childhood music classes.

Both of these settings require that I find a way to engage children of a range of ages, personalities, and developmental levels. From a music therapist perspective and as an advocate for inclusion, I love that props do not require language skills to be used or enjoyed. Children who are very young or otherwise non-verbal can still successfully engage with the group without having to speak. You can promote choice by giving a child the option between different color scarves and encourage self-expression by recognizing how a child interacts with a scarf (Sarah is waving hers up high!).

Since receptive language develops before expressive language, both verbal and non-verbal children can learn or practice directional words as the group leader or their caregiver asks them and models how to move their scarves up, down, in front, behind, etc. For the children who are verbal, it gives them a chance to tell you about what color they have, how they are moving it, or what body part it is covering.

Stretchy Bands Can Also Promote Social Interaction in a Low-Stress Way

A tool like the connect-a-band or stretchy band can also promote social interaction in a low-stress way. During a classic favorite like Ring Around the Rosie, some children simply are not comfortable holding anyone’s hand other than their caregiver. A connect-a-band not only helps structure the movement by making a natural circle, it literally “connects” the group members with each other without the pressure of physical touch.

For children with sensory issues, this is also a plus as it provides social interaction, interesting sensory input, and can be a pre-curser to physical contact like holding hands. I love the flexibility that the connect-a-band can be used in both large and small group settings. When used during the song Row Your Boat, I’ve seen it build interpersonal connections among the numerous participants of a family music and literacy event or simply the more intimate bond between a parent and child.

Stretchy bands help structure the movement by making a natural circle, it “connects” the group without the pressure of physical touch Share on X

“Rocket Ship Run” and “Airplane Song” Activity Suggestion

I find myself planning the use of movement props into almost every group, whether it be the connect-a-band, scarves, bean bags, streamers, parachute, or balloon ball. When children have something literally in their hand, it makes music an even more “hands-on” experience, and what better way to learn than through doing!

Most recently, I used scarves and the connect-a-band with some Laurie Berkner Band Songs during a transportation theme. The scarves were our rockets that went “blast off!” into the air during “Rocketship Run” and helped us creatively move during the dancing portion.

For “The Airplane Song,” the connect-a-band served as our airplane, as we went to see the world, practiced getting in and out, took turns leading, and moved in lots of fun ways! You could use a big connect-a-band for a large group or single ones for “family planes.”

Sarah Niileksela MT-BC

Sarah is a board-certified music therapist and owner/director of Sunflower Music Therapy. She graduated from KU in 2003 and has worked as a music therapist with a variety of populations, including early childhood, children and adults with special needs, and patients in hospitals and behavioral health units. Sarah has had extensive training on the use of music to teach literacy skills and has been asked to present on the topic to early childhood educators around northeast Kansas. Sarah is passionate about working in early childhood and wants her work to foster a life-long love of music and reading in children as well as help them grow and develop skills through the joy of active music-making. Sarah currently contracts with the Topeka Public Schools State Pre-K program, the East Central Kansas Cooperative in Education, Community Living Opportunities, The Toy Store (Topeka, KS), and with multiple child care providers and individual families.

The post The Airplane Song with the Connect-a-Stretchy Band appeared first on Bear Paw Creek.