music with mar Archives - Bear Paw Creek

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

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.

The post 5 Children’s Books to Use With Movement Props for Read Across America Week & National Reading Month appeared first on Bear Paw Creek.

Back to School Giveaway — Worth Over $900!

Madison Stephens — Sat, 22 Jul 2023 14:43:46 +0000

Annual Back To School Giveaway — Worth Over $900!

It's time for our annual back to school giveaway with a prize package FULL of music and movement resources! At Bear Paw Creek, we love to do giveaways. They are a fun way to give back to all of you and to show our appreciation for your continued support. We always look forward to our big annual back to school giveaway a this year we have asked several of our friends to join in. Not only are we giving away some of our best selling creative movement props, we also have some children's books, some awesome music, miniature items, and more that have been generously donated!

On top of that, we are also opening up this year's back to school giveaway to not only our USA followers, but to all of our international followers as well. Keep reading to get all the details on what's included in the giveaway and find out how to enter. This is a giveaway you are not going to want to miss!

Everything Included in the Back to School Giveaway

Our creative movement props would not be as successful or as beneficial as they are without combining them with music, books, manipluatives and more. We are so excited to be able to include some of our close friends and fellow businesses in this giveaway. We love each person listed below and want to say a big thank you to all of them for joining this years back to school giveaway.

One of the very first books given to me when I was a baby was a copy of I'm A Little Teapot, illustrated by Iza Trapani (which I still have!). My mom and I are big fans of her work and to say we were excited when she agreed to participate in our back to school giveaway is an understatement. Iza Trapani was born in Poland and immigrated to American at seven years old. Upon arriving to America, she was given a large collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes. These nursery rhymes are what helped her learn to speak English and what inspired her to become an author and illustrator. Now, her first book The Itsy Bitsy Spider has sold over 2.5 million copies and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star has sold over 1.3 million copies. Her illustrations are beautiful and nursery rhymes always manage to keep children engaged. Iza has generously donated SIGNED COPIES of three of her books:

Old MacDonal Had a...Zoo?
Froggie Went A-Courtin'
Baa Baa Black Sheep

Nancy Kopman is an Early Childhood Educator, recording artist, performer and music curriculum builder. Her "Music With a Purpose" is used by educators, therapists, caregivers and families worldwide. Nancy's songs and classes (both in-person and online) focus on movement, connection and learning together while having fun. We have loved connecting with Nancy this year and are very excited for you to have the chance to win her music! Her songs fit so well with many of our music and movement props. You can also check out her Patreon community here. Nancy is generously donating a six pack of CD's from her music collection:

"I Am A Tree" album
"Senses" album
"Shadow" album
"The Seasons" album
"Wonderful You" album
"I Know I'll Grow...." album

Music for Kiddos was created by Stephanie Leavell MT-BC and is dedicated to providing high-quality children's music resources for music therapists, music educators, and parents. Not only does Stephanie write truly amazing music, she also has continuing education courses, a podcast, and offers an online resource membership community. On top of all that, she hosts an online conference each year created exclusively for music therapists and music educators who work with kids. Stephanie has generously donated these items to our back to school giveaway:

The Shy Little Monster book
A signed physical copy of her newest album, "Bloom"
Movement Songs for Kiddos: Digital Album, Online Courses + Workbook

Rachelle is a Speech-Language Pathologist and started Speech Tree Co in December of 2018. She had the idea to make mini object kits targeting speech and language goals while working as a pediatric SLP. After using the mini items with her students, she quickly realized just how much more engaging the mini toys were than traditional articulation flashcards. As longtime fans of anything miniature, we are beyond excited to connect with Rachelle and share her resources with all of you. You can enter for the chance to win two themed units from Speech Tree Co:

Oceans Unit
Sports Unit

We have been following Rhythm and Strings Music Therapy since fall of 2022 when Marie released her singable book, Where Do You Sleep? She has been marketing the book in such a fun way using different miniature items, you can check it out by visiting their Instagram or Facebook page. Marie is a Neurologic music therapist in Southern Maine, is a children's book author, and provides resources with a rhythm. She is adding several items to the giveaway including:

A copy of Where Do You Sleep?
Bookmark (featuring an animal from the book!)
Animal Stickers

DiscoverDance is a dance community dedicated to learning, creating, and educating the early years. In 2018, DiscoverDance partnered with Bear Paw Creek to create the DiscoverDance Music and Movement Prop Collection. Incorporating creative movement props with the DiscoverDance conceptual explorations enhances the early childhood learning experience. Andrea Trench from DiscoverDance is donating:

44 DiscoverBALLET Coloring Pages: Skills include both boy and girl images

Patina Jackson is a board certified music therapist and is the creator and owner of Music Therapy Joy. She offers many amazing resources from engaging songs with high-quality, visual aids, to forms for data, planning, organization and evaluations. She is donating a bundle includes recordings for 10 songs that support social emotional learning for kids and teens! PLUS a 98-page PDF packed with chord sheets, intervention ideas, worksheets, printable visuals, and slide presentation links (for classroom screens, tablets, virtual sessions and more)! On top of all that, Patina has also been releasing some wonderful music! You can check out her Spotify here. Enter for your chance to win the:

Friends and Feelings Bundle

This year for Bear Paw Creek's contribution, we are giving away a little bit of everything! Scarves, Stretchy Bands, and our newest movement prop, the Small Play Parachute. We are also adding Maryann "Mar" Harman's new book to the giveaway along with Miss Carole's CD's. Be sure to check out both of their websites and social media pages. Here is everything you could win from us:

Click Here to Enter our BIG Annual Back to School Giveaway - Worth Over $900! Share on X

How To Enter for Your Chance to Win the Giveaway

After sharing that list of all of the amazing music and movement resources included in this years back to school giveaway you're probably thinking, "How do I enter ASAP!?".

All you have to do is head on over to either Instagram or Facebook, like the post, then comment and tag some friends. Tip: If you enter on both Facebook and Instagram, you'll have even more chances to win.

We understand that some of you may not be on social media and want to make sure you still have a chance to enter. If you are not on social media, go ahead and click here! Enter your email to make sure you are subscribed to our mailing list and you will be entered in as well.

Again, we want to say a huge thank you to all of our good friends for donating their products and resources to this giveaway. We are so excited to kick off the school year in this fun way. Be sure to stay tuned as we will be announcing our back to school sale information soon!

Madison Stephens

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Building Brains with Music with Music with Mar.

Janet Stephens — Thu, 23 Feb 2023 12:00:18 +0000

Building Brains with Music by Music with Mar.

Did you know Bear Paw Creek was started 23 years ago in the basement of a rental home in Springfield, Missouri? It has brought more opportunities, fulfillment, and joy to my life than I could have ever dreamed. Besides being a small part that helps get music and movement into the hands of therapists, educators, parents, and children, the other benefit of this business is all of the connections I have made through the years.

Why am I taking a trip down this memory lane? I am always amazed and humbled by the possibilities we have to connect with people from all around the world. In this blog post I am going to share about one of those connections, Maryann from Music with Mar.

Connecting Through Music

Many of you know the story of how Bear Paw Creek came to be. If not, you may enjoy reading about it. What started as a way to provide creative movement props, instrument cases, and storage bags to music therapists has continued to grow. Now, not only do music therapists utilize our creative movement props, they are also used by parents at home with their children, teachers in classrooms, and more!

Since our products go great with music, I am always looking for fun songs and have greatly enjoyed getting to connect with children's music artists over the years. Mar. is one of them! Here is a little bit about Mar:

Maryann “Mar.” Harman is a music educator with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music and a Master’s in Education, with an emphasis in Early Childhood and is certified in Level I Orff. These degrees contribute to her ability to write songs that are musically and educationally sound for children as well as fun and easy to use for teachers and parents. She is the founder of the internationally-enjoyed Music with Mar. Brain Research Based program, Music with Mar. International (Beijing, China) and hosted BAM! Radio Music and Learning Channel. Mar. has written songs for Dr. Becky Bailey’s “I Love You Rituals”, Kaplan’s LED Program and has won a John Lennon Songwriter’s Award. She completed a 12 hour certification in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. Mar. has also done a TEDx Talk titled “Building Brains with Music”. She is a sought after speaker for her knowledge, passion and entertaining delivery.

Several years ago she wrote a few songs to use with our Stretchy Bands and compiled this album, Music for Manipulatives. We also pulled together a movement prop and instrument kit that can be used with her music. Now, I am so excited that Mar. has shared her years of research and wisdom in a Ted Talk and a new book!

Learn all about Music with Mar.'s new book, Building Brains with Music Share on X

Building Brains with Music

I loved getting to listen to Mar.'s Ted Talk and want to share it here. This will give you an idea of what is in her new book, newly released in the fall of 2022.

I thoroughly enjoyed her book and wish I had had this resource when I started my parenting journey in 1998. I wish that her information would be part of the standardized education system, so that future generations could benefit from it. She sums it up nicely in the forward:

Who should read this book? Anyone who has a child in their life, whether as a parent, family member, teacher or someone else involved in the child's care, should read this book. The information contained will change how you view music. It will not only have a positive, direct impact on the child; it will have an impact on you, the reader, as well.

I was also thrilled at the mention of Bear Paw Creek's products and songs she shares. For $19.99, you not only get the book, but access to the digital music she mentions throughout the book! We are proud to be carrying it on our site and hope to be able to help get it into the hands of as many people as possible. Click here to get your copy!

As we connect through education, music, and relationships, this world gets better and better. Keep singing!

Janet Stephens

Janet is the founder, designer, and one of the seamstresses behind Bear Paw Creek's made in the USA line of creative movement props, and bags. She is passionate about her faith, family, and loves the journey of learning and growing this life provides.

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