The Colorful and Beautiful sounds and sights of May flowers was the Intergenerational Theme Music Therapy session between Children and Senior Champions at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Williamsburg. The senior champions were energized and stimulated by the youthful spirit of the pre-school children of Family Focus groups and to share their wisdom, hugs, joy, friendship, and kindness with the children.
The seniors began with a wellness exercise with included guided deep breathing to recorded music. Then the children were greeted and welcomed with their special welcome song. We then distributed colorful fruit shakers and the children matched their same fruit shaker with a senior champion friend. We sang the hello song, shared different was to tap, move, shake their shakers together. Then we sang “I like to shake, shake, shake Apples and Bananas” emphasizing high, low, fast and slow.
The large soft flowers were distributed … each pair were invited to share their color of their flower and different ways to Nurture the beautiful flowers outside. We then sang a modified song to incorporate the color and their flower.
Then the lyrics and pictures to the song “I love the Mountains” we distributed to complete the song. Large gross motor movement and actions that followed the song were demonstrated by the children and seniors. They loved showing how their flowers grew with the hands.
Then the children and seniors were invited to use teamwork to play the colorful tone bars to the song. The children and senior champions worked as a team to tap several patterns and rhythms, emphasizing starting and stopping together… a fun way to practice “impulse control” and “on task behavior” skills.
This program continues to create many special bonding moments, expressive communication between generations and smiles, youthful energy, JOY and friendship through bridging and connecting both generations.
The children returned to their classroom and the senior champions sang several flower songs including “My Wild Irish Rose, The Yellow Rose of Texas, and Daisy, Daisy.” Lastly, the seniors played “How Great Thou Art” and “In the Garden” on tone chimes.
Reflective comments included: “the children are growing so quickly, I love the children’s hugs, I feel fantastic, so youthful, wonderful, and awesome.
Alzheimer, Dementia, Geriatrics, Older Adults, Music Therapy, Music Activities
