Fall 2009 Session - June Callwood Center

instructor: Matthew Macleod

Week 1

The first class at the June Callwood center of the fall had some new children in attendance.
I hope that the newer students will become regular attendees because there is a group of 8 mothers who attend high school at the center during the day.  Most of the mothers have children under 1 years old however there was one little girl who joined us who had been with the class all summer long.  Since it was mostly a baby class she chose to join us with a baby doll for alot of the songs!

The mothers were a bit shy at first but I noticed they were very good singers and after "Roly Poly" and "The Flea" we were able to move on to favourites such as The "Grand Old Duke of York", "What Shall We Do With A Sleeping Baby" and "Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum".  I explained the value of using sign language in our program and everyone seemed to really enjoy "Sittin' In My Highchair".  We had a great jam session and highlights were the "ABC/Baa Baa Black Sheep/Twinkle, Twinkle Medley" and "You Are My Sunshine".  We finished off the class with "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom" and some parachute songs.  I hope that the scheduling of the class will create a regular group as we will be able to do so many great songs if we have a group of mothers coming every week.


Week 2

The second class at the June Callwood center of the fall was made of a group of mothers and children who have all attended at least one of the classes I taught in the past.  Half the class was from the previous week and a couple I had met in the summer session. The class was comprised of 6 children, mostly 1-2 years old including a couple of brothers close in age who were very active during the class and both seemed to love the instruments.

We started off the class with the "Hello Song",  "The Eensy, Weensy Spider" and then went into "Roly Poly".  "Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum" and "Bathtime" were both popular numbers and the mothers were very good singers.  By far, the most popular part of the session was when we stood up, on request and hopped on the train to "Down By The Station" followed by "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom".  Our jam session was made up of "ABCD/Baa Baa Black Sheep/Twinkle, Twinkle Medley",  "You Are My Sunshine" and "Down In The Valley".  We finished off the class with some parachute numbers.

I look forward to building our repetoire and continuing to have lots of fun together sharing music.


Week 3

The third class at the June Callwood center of the fall was made up of 4 mothers and their babies and 2 staff members.  We started the class out with "Round and Round the Garden" as all the babies were lying on their backs at the outset of the class.  We then warmed up with The Flea and Button scales songs followed by Roly Poly.  Though the class was small the mothers were very enthusiastic and enjoyed that they could take some of the songs without guitar home to practise with their children.  We followed with "Sittin' In My Highchair".  Finally, it was time to take out the guitar.  Ivy and Richard, both who have been at all sessions so far, lit up when we sung the "Grand Old Duke of York" and "What Shall We Do With A Sleeping Baby".

After a few more numbers I brought out the Wooden Frogs as the instruments of the week.  Everyone was very excited to try out the three sizes of frog.  We sang "5 Green and Speckled Frogs" and "The Little Green Frog".  Then Richard's mom requested "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom" which was a hit and we followed with "Elephants Marching" and "All Around The Kitchen".  This group liked to dance!  We finished off with a parachute session featuring "Three Little Birds" which all of the mothers new well. 

Week 4

Today's class had 7 children, each with a caregiver in attendance.  Most of the children were under one except for some twins who I had in some of my summer Rainbow Songs Foundation classes at June's.

We learned some Halloween songs today including a Halloween version of "Roly Poly", "Pumpkin, Pumpkin", "The Very Scary Spider" and "Five Little Pumpkins".  "Sticky, Sticky Bubblegum" was a favourite and We had a great dancing session to "Elephants Marching" and "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom".  For the instrument of the week I brought a rainstick and the children, especially the twins, seemed to really enjoy the rainstick.

We finished up with a great jam session including: "The Banana Boat Song", "ABCD/Twinkle, Twinkle" and "You Are My Sunshine".  One mother came in with her baby during the "Goodbye Song" and so I did "The Baby Burping Song" as an encore at the end of the class.  She looked tired and I hope that she will join us next week.

Week 5

The fifth class at the June Callwood Center comprised of four mothers and their babies who had been at classes with me before.  We enjoyed doing lots of Halloween Songs during this class including "The Very Scary Spider", "Pumpkin, Pumpkin", "5 Little Pumpkins" and "The Bat Song".  "Little Red Wagon" was lots of fun as the babies went for a lap ride.  The babies all seemed to enjoy the class as did the mothers who were very enthusiastic and did some great singing.  For the instrument of the week we all tried the "Tingshaw Bells" from Tibet which were a hit.  Zoom, Zoom, Zoom and the parachute, as always, were very popular.  This was the final class of the session because of numbers.