Instruments Archives - Bear Paw Creek

Boom Tote Storage Bag for Boomwhackers

Madison Stephens — Fri, 08 Mar 2024 15:07:32 +0000

Boom Tote Storage Bag for Boomwhackers®

Have you ever played with Boomwhackers®?

Have you ever tried to keep them organized? You wouldn't think a bunch of little tubes could be so hard to keep together but it's like they have a mind of their own. They just keep...rolling.

There is a solution: The Boom Tote, a Boomwhacker® storage bag with a closeable drawstring top to make them all stay in one place and a mesh top so you can see the colorful Boomwhackers®. Plus, a zippered pocket for your extras!

Keep reading for more details on the Boom Tote for Boomwhackers® plus a fun giveaway with Haleigh at Helpful Harmonies Music Therapy.

The Boom Tote for Boomwhackers®

Back in 2012 a friend, Michelle Erfurt MT-BC, reached out to us with the idea of the Boom Tote. She says, “I happened to have a standard set of Boomwhackers® but had a hard time carrying them around. So, I made the Boom Tote. I guess the saying 'Necessity is the mother of invention' is true! Thank you so much for checking out the Boom Tote, I know it will help you carry around your instruments.”

The Boom Tote storage bag can hold a full octave (or 8 Boomwhackers®). It has a gusseted fabric bottom which extends the fabric area on the bottom allowing the Boomwhackers® to fit well. The drawstring has a cord lock to keep the bag securely closed and features a mesh upper section so that your instruments are visible. The Boom Tote also as adjustable shoulder straps for easy carrying.

The outer zippered pocket on the Boom Tote is large enough to easily hold a set of Octovator Tube Caps, keys, wallet or business cards. The Boom Tote measures 9" x 29" with the pocket measuring 6.5" x 8" x 2". One of the best parts, the Boom Tote is machine washable!

We discontinued the Boom Tote for several years while we worked on redesigning it. With several requests and people reaching out asking when it would be available again, we worked hard to finalize the design and are excited to have this product back on our website! With the help of our Bear Paw Creek Insider's group, we decided to stick with black for the Boom Tote. By keeping the Boom Tote black, it really allows the colors of the Boomwhackers® to pop.

If you're interested in learning more about Boomwhackers®, how they work, and what they're used for, you can check out the About Us page on www.boomwhackers.com. This article also has some great information on Boomwhackers® and their history.

Boom Tote Storage Bag for Boomwhackers® — Finally back on the Bear Paw Creek website! Share on X

Boom Tote and Boomwhackers® Giveaway!

You know we LOVE giveaways here at Bear Paw Creek. So, to celebrate this product being newly released (again), we're doing a giveaway!

Bear Paw Creek and Helpful Harmonies Music Therapy are teaming up to give away:

A Boom Tote Storage Bag for Boomwhackers®
A C Major Diatonic Scale of Boomwhackers®

The Boom Tote giveaway is open up to those in the USA and Internationally! To get the details on how to enter for you chance to win, check out our post on Instagram or Facebook. (HINT: You can enter both places for even more entries!)

This giveaway ends on March 11th, 2024 at 11:59 pm CST. One winner will be drawn and announced on March 12th, 2024. Bear Paw Creek will contact you directly if you have won and will NOT require a payment method of any kind, so please be wary of any strange messages requesting payment info!

If you're like me and want the most giveaway entries as possible, enter your name and email below for an automatic 5 bonus entries. Good luck to everyone and thank you for your continued support!

Madison Stephens

Madison has been a part of BPC her whole life. As a young child, she and her siblings helped stuff stretchy bands and flip bean bags. Over the last six years she has become even more involved and is now an official BPC employee with the role of seamstress and social media manager. When she’s not working, you’ll find her spending time with family and friends, going on walks with her dog, working with horses, or cooking and baking. Madison feels honored to have the opportunity to work alongside her mom, Janet Stephens, and be involved with the family business.

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5 Children’s Books to Use With Movement Props for Read Across America Week & National Reading Month

Madison Stephens — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 19:23:21 +0000

5 Children's Books to Use With Movement Props for Read Across America Week & National Reading Month

Did you know that March 2nd through the 6th is Read Across America Week? This week is the nation's largest celebration of reading. The National Education Association (NEA) established this week of celebration to educate on the importance of reading and its benefits, especially for young children and adults.

Not only do we have Read Across America Week to celebrate, the entire month of March is National Reading Month! We are excited for the focus on literacy this month and thought it would be fun to compile a list of books that can be paired with our creative movement props.

Keep reading for 5 children's book ideas to use with movement props along with a book by one of our long-time friends, Maryann "Mar" Harman.

1. "Wheels on the Bus" Book and Activity With the Stretchy Band

Wheels on the Bus has always been one of my favorite books. I have the 25th anniversary pop-up edition of this book and it is so fun to read, children are always fascinated with the interactive pages and the illustrations are beautiful. One of the great things about this book and song is that it is perfect to use as a Stretchy Band activity! This blog post by our friend, Carole Stephens, talks about the different movements you can do with the Stretchy Band while singing the song. Here is a snippet to give you an idea:

Start singing the traditional song, “The Wheels on the Bus”, while moving the band in circles away from your body. Children will follow along quickly. Below are motions for some of the additional verses. Feel free to add your own! This is definitely a favorite activity in my classes!

Wheels — move Stretchy Band in circles away from body.
Doors — legs straight out in front, lay back slowly, then sit up (yep, it’s sit-ups!).
Windows — move Stretchy Band up’n’down- up on the word “up”, down on the word “down.”
Wipers — move hands/band from side to side.
People go bumpity-bump –— shake the band and wiggle all around.
Babies cry — knock fists together, then apart quickly on “waa waa waa!”
Repeat wheels verse to end the song

I'm also linking a few videos below to give you a visual idea of how to incorporate this fun Wheels on the Bus Stretchy Band activity into your next music and movement time. Including one where we customized the song and made it a "Wheels on the Tractor". Get creative with this activity and have fun with switching up a few words and changing the movements. Not only is this book and activity perfect for Read Across America Week and National Reading Month it's great to use year-round.

2. "Tammy the Troll: A Dance in the Forest" — A creative dance book to use with movement scarves!

Our friends at Once Upon A Dance released an adorable book last year titled Tammy the Troll: A Dance in the Forest. We were so excited when they reached out to us asking about collaborating to make a set with the book and some of our creative movement scarves. You can check out the set here.

Readers are invited to stretch, spin, jump and more as they act out the journey to find Tammy. Kids are invited to use a creative movement scarf as a backpack, a paddle, butterfly wings, a towel, and a pillow to enhance the fun and explore the movements, dnace fundamentals, and early-learning concepts.

As kids move along with the book’s diverse characters, they explore levels, direction, spatial awareness, emotions, balance, movement quality, and more. Dance stories are a wonderful way to combine books and movement for kids who love both, making them great for Read Across America Week. Tammy the Trolls: A Dance in the Forest is perfect for dance class, creative movement play, physical education, or any setting where children are inspired to explore and express themselves.

3. "Shake my Sillies Out" (Raffi Songs to Read)

Many of us are familiar with Raffi's classic song, "Shake My Sillies Out". When I ran across this book, Shake My Sillies Out (Raffi Songs to Read) on amazon I was so excited and thought it would be a perfect addition to our list of books for Read Across America Week and National Reading Month.

My first thought for a movement prop to use with this book and song was a streamer. We have several different streamer options from hoops to fabric wrist scrunchies, ribbon and chiffon, primary or rainbow! I can see each child or student holding a streamer while they shake, clap, jump, and wiggle their way through this classic Raffi sing-along book. You could also do this with movement scarves. Both the streamers and scarves would be less stimulating as they would be soft and quiet even with kids getting excited and moving around.

Another option would be egg shakers, of course! We have a variety of different hand instruments available on our website including egg shakers. While they would definitely add an element of noise to your music and movement time, egg shakers would be very fun to use with Raffi's "Shake My Sillies Out".

4. "My Many Colored Days" — A Dr. Seuss Board Book to Use with Scarves

Did you know that National Reading Month was started as a way to honor Dr. Seuss' birthday and motivate people of all ages to read every day? Once I found this out, I knew My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss had to be on our list of books for Read Across America Week and National Reading Month. This book is perfect for learning and reinforcing skills such as:

Color recognition
Identifying and exploring moods and emotions
Starting and stopping — motor control
Creating movements to match music and words

We have a kit available on our site that includes My Many Colored Days board book, IDEAS Music Color CD, and creative movement scarves. We have a group kit option as well as a small kit to fit your needs. You can check out the kit here! The music tracks accompany the Dr. Seuss board book and creative movement scarves. It can be used for both classroom and individual use. The music is also perfect also perfect to use by itself for exploration of movement, mood, and creativity.

5. "My Color Book" — Use Bean Bags and Scarves to Practice Color Recognition

Help children love learning by incorporating this colorful and engaging book by Kathy Schumacher MT-BC at Tuneful Teaching. The book is also a great accompaniment for learning sign language. The following signs/motions are included: my, color, book, sun, yellow, pumpkin, orange, sky, clouds, white, plum, purple, apple, red, leaping, frog, green, ocean, blue, acorn, brown, rolling, tire, black, everywhere, in, out, eyes, and look/stare.

The colors included are: yellow, orange, white, purple, red, green, blue, brown, black

By using a movement prop in tandem with the My Color Book, you can provide something tactile to further reinforce the color concepts. Our Primary and Neutral pack of Bean Bags would be perfect as it includes all of the colors listed in the My Color Book. You could also build your own kit of movement scarves by choosing the colors you need.

As you read through the book, have your child or student point to or pick up the corresponding colored Bean Bag or Scarf. In a group setting, you could pass out the Bean Bags or Scarves and as each color is read, whoever is holding that color could do a fun movement or just lift it up and repeat the colors' name.

BONUS Book: "Building Brains with Music: A must have guide on how to use music to enhance brain development"

Last but not least, I have to recommend this book by Maryann "Mar" Harman. She is a music educator with a Bachelor's Degree in Music and a Master's in Education, with an emphasis on Early Childhood and is a certified Level I Orff. These degrees contribute to her ability to write songs that are musically and educationally sound for children's music as well as fun and easy to use for teachers and parents.

This book is all about using music to enhance brain development and in it, Mar discusses how to use movement props with music to further enhance music's incredible benefits. Her book also includes access to 27 of her amazing digital songs.

We collaborated with Mar to put together a kit with different props and instruments to go with her book. You can check out the Music with Mar. Student Manipulative Kit here or click here to check out the book only.

I hope after reading this blog post that you are left inspired and maybe have a few more ideas on how you can use books with our movement props. If you incorporate any of these activities into your next music and movement time and share any photos or videos, please tag us! We love to see them. You can find us @bearpawcreek on both Facebook and Instagram. If you have any more book suggestions for us, send us an email at info@bearpawcreek.com. Happy reading!

Madison Stephens

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MiniArtis — Montessori and Musical Toys that Inspire Creativity!

Madison Stephens — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 13:49:51 +0000

MiniArtis — Montessori and Musical Toys that Inspire Creativity!

A couple of months ago, a company called MiniArtis reached out to us on Instagram offering to send us some of their musical toys. Seeing as their products fit well with what we do at Bear Paw Creek, we of course, said yes! After receiving the package and getting to see their impressive musical toys in person, we thought Kathy Schumacher at Tuneful Teaching might be a good person to test them out for us. Over the last few weeks, she has been using them with her clients during music therapy sessions and is impressed with their accurate sound and overall durability, as well as ease of storage.

Keep reading to learn more about MiniArtis and about how Kathy has used their musical toys in music therapy sessions to help teach her clients important skills such as, working memory, listening skills, color recognition, rhythm, and more.

About MiniArtis: Inspiring the Next Generation of Creative Minds

First, a little bit about MiniArtis. At MiniArtis, they are committed to exceeding your expectations by delivering innovative, high-quality toys that inspire creativity and imagination. However, they aren't just toys! Each of their products were designed with the understanding that every child is unique, each with distinctive interests and strengths.

That's why they have dedicated themselves to crafting a diverse range of music-based toys that cater to these varying inclinations, whether they lie in music, art, construction, or are used simply to inspire fun and imaginative play. Recognizing play as a crucial part of a child's development, they design their music-based toys to not only be engaging, but also to contribute to your child's learning, growth, and self-expression.

"At MiniArtis, we're not just about toys; we're about fostering creativity and individuality in every child. Our goal is to combine innovation and quality to create a collection of toys that are designed to stimulate imagination and facilitate playful learning. At MiniArtis, we pour our hearts into crafting each piece, sparking joy and nurturing imaginations, so kids can thrive in a world of endless possibilities!"

The three musical toys they sent us were the Xylophone, Hand Bells, and the Desk Bells. Each of their products come with an Oscar Music Songbook which contains 15 easy, popular songs. These musical toys used in tandem with creative music and movement activities will help spark your child's natural curiosity, develop intelligence, improve cognitive and motor skills, and nurture your child's talents.

MiniArtis — Montessori and Musical Toys that Inspire Creativity! Share on X

Using Musical Toys in a Music Therapy Setting

Now, what Kathy had to say about the musical toys from MiniArtis:

"The MiniArts "xylophone toy" is very durable and in tune. "In tune" is a big deal because most instruments of this size do not sound very musical. The kids in my client loved following the included songbook and were almost immediately successful with being able to create music.

The desk bells and hand bells are very durable. It's great that they can be stored in the included drawstring bag as they take up minimal space. The book that comes with them is well written and very motivating for the kids.

We used the bells to work on core strength as well as working memory. In the "Lean On Me" video, we are using simple chords to accompany the song. My helper is simply matching the color I am playing and changing when I play. In the second video I am playing a series of pitches and rhythms and she is holding them in her memory before playing the same series." -Kathy Shumacher MT-BC, www.TunefulTeaching.com

In this video Kathy and a child she does music therapy with are using the Hand and Desk Bells from MiniArtis. With the call and response technique, the child is able to learn and practice important listening skills. It also encourages focus and engagement.

With this activity, you could also incorporate our creative movement streamers with the call and response. For example, when Kathy is playing a pattern of three sounds, she could have one be a silent sound where instead, you lift up a streamer and use your voice to make an ascending "whhooop!" sound. You could also turn this into a color recognition activity. By using a set of primary ribbon streamers, the instructor could hold up a color streamer, and the child would then make a sound with the matching hand bell.

Coupon Code for MiniArtis' Musical Toys

If you're interested in purchasing some of MiniArtis' musical toys to use in your next music therapy session, at home for fun, or maybe even in a classroom setting, they have generously given us a couple of 15% off coupon codes to share with you all. You can use the code 15BEARCREEK when you purchase one of their products on Amazon.com. Or, you can use the code BEARPAWCREEK15 when shopping directly on their website! The coupon codes are valid from Saturday, November 21st through Wednesday, November 25th.

Be sure to check out their social media pages as well. You can find them on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. We hope you find this new resource to be helpful and beneficial as you continue to enrich children's lives through music and movement.

Madison Stephens

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