Spring is finally here!!!!!!! If you’re reading this and call the Twin Cities home, you’ll understand the necessity of all those exclamation points! After an extremely cold and snowy winter, I have been soaking up this spring weather. Spring themed music therapy interventions are always my favorite and I have been bringing as much spring into my music therapy sessions as possible! Today I’m going to share a spring themed music therapy intervention that my memory care groups have been really “feeling” (pun intended, as you’ll soon see).
Materials
Felt in a variety of colors, a white felt background, a portable whiteboard, guitar, spring themed songs
Prep
Create a spring scene out of felt (sky, grass, trees, flowers, birds, bees, sunshine, rainbows, clouds, rain, river/lake, etc). I’ve included a picture of what I created below!
Intervention
Create the background of blue sky and grass and inform participants that they will be creating a spring picture together.
Hand each participant a felt spring element.
Ask the participants: “who has the sun?”
Have the participant with the sun place it on the picture where they would like
Play a song live that references the sun. As an added challenge, you can ask the participants if they know any songs about the sun. (ex: Here Comes the Sun, Sunshine On My Shoulders, On the Sunny Side of the Street, You Are My Sunshine, etc).
Provide opportunities for reminiscence about the sun (tanning vs burning, outdoor activities when it’s warmer outside, ice and snow melting, etc)
Repeat for the remaining elements.
I like to end this session with What a Wonderful World because it mentions many things about springtime and gives the participants a chance to admire the picture they’ve created together.
All my Keynote Music Therapy memory care and older adult groups have loved this intervention! This intervention provides participants with visual, tactile, and auditory cues to prompt springtime memories and orient them to the current season. They also get to participate in artistic expression by choosing where to place their spring elements and seeing the spring scenery develop throughout the session. This intervention is sure to give you all the “feels” this spring!
Do you have a favorite spring themed music therapy intervention that you use with older adults? Let me know in the comments below!