Our Lifeskills Class Rocks!

Meet Miss C. She rocks.

 

 We've had the pleasure of getting to know Miss C. during our lunch period when she is hard at work monitoring the cafeteria. Miss C. studied music education and works closely with the middle and high school band teachers. The other day we were chatting about how great it would be to have our kids participate in an adapted music lesson here and there. Our students do an awesome job in general education music, but, let's face it, the function of their participation has more to do with social skills acquisition than music education. 

Miss C. made my day when she suggested holding an instrument expo where our kids could visit the band room (courtesy of our fabulous music teacher, Mr. W. who is always being silly engaging with our kids when he sees them around school) to experience different instruments. 

I can't say enough about how AWESOME this lesson was. Miss C. is a natural with our group- she had everyone engaged throughout the lesson!

Take a look:

 Here we are testing out some instruments and getting some great pointers...

 It was a blast! The kids got to experiment with so many different instruments.

 They followed directions really well and did a nice job working together.

 

Here's one of my favorites- Miss C. had the ingenious idea to have the kids hold their mallets up like alien antennae when giving instructions. Worked like a charm!

 The kids took turns being the leader and giving the class different numbers of beats to play.

The triangle was literally a big hit!

 Probably the most exciting part of our lesson was when we got to test out the large drum. The kids thought it sounded just like thunder!

 This lesson was so perfectly timed- we have some fun stuff planned for this super short week, and this was the icing on the cake!

We are THANKFUL that there are teachers out there like Miss C. and Mr. W. who take time out of their day to make a difference for our students. 

We are THANKFUL for their caring and commitment to making sure that our kids have access to differentiated instruction across disciplines.

Enormous THANKS to Miss C. and Mr. W. for helping Lifeskills ROCK.

We'll be back next week with more adventures...

Until then, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!