Festive Interventions for your Holiday Session Plans!

Festive Interventions for your Holiday Session Plans!

Hello everyone! I don’t know about you, but I have been waiting ALL FALL to be able to finally do holiday interventions. I think it is so fun to plan sessions around a theme, especially for holidays! I have done several holiday sessions so far, so I wanted to share some fun interventions for your own session planning! 

Holiday Themed Name that Tune: 

One of my favorite ways to structure a session is to start with “Name that tune” before each intervention I lead. I love to do this by using my Kazoo to play the melody for the group, then following with that song and a fun exercise ! Below are lots of ideas for interventions to put to various Holiday songs

Frosty the Snowman-Sustained Attention/Focus Intervention:

Materials: Frosty the snowman pieces (hat, nose, eyes, mouth, scarf) 

Plan: 

1. MT passes out pieces to Frosty the Snowman so that each client has one piece. 
2. MT begins to sing Frosty the Snowman, accompanying on guitar. 
3. As MT sings song, clients listen for their item to be listed in the song. When they hear their item, MT brings large drum over to them and they toss their item into the drum.. 
4. MT continues to sing until all items have been collected 
5. You will see success when clients are engaged and focused for the entire song and puts their item in the drum without needing additional prompting. 

Example: 

Frosty the snowman was a jolly happy soul

With a corncob pipe (*client with pipe puts item into drum)

 and a button nose (*client with nose puts item into drum)

And two eyes made out of coal (*client with eyes puts item into drum)

For this exercise, I found a snowman kit at Target! I am sure you could find this other places as well, such as Amazon or other stores. If you can’t find a kit, I suggest creating one out of paper or felt! I have attached a photo of my kit for your reference below:  

 

Deck the Halls: Falalala attention intervention

1. MT plays melody on Kazoo, clients guess the title of the song 
2. MT says: “Now I have a special role for you in this song. I want you to hold your instrument in the air and play along only on the part that says “falalalala”. Anytime you hear that phrase, lift and play! Let’s practice” 
3. MT sings first line of song and visually prompts clients to raise and play instruments on “falalala” section.
4. MT sings song, accompanying on guitar, prompting clients to play along. 

 

Let it Snow: Upper Body Movement

Materials: snowflakes or scarves

1. MT passes out visual snowflakes to the group
2. MT demonstrates desired movement with snowflake (arm extensions, bicep curls, etc.)
3. MT sings through song, accompanying on guitar, while cueing group for movement. 

For this activity, I printed out snowflakes that I found on Google images, and laminated them for use with clients! Another fun idea is using scarves as snowflakes and “winter wind”

Walkin’ In a Winter Wonderland: Lower Body Movement: 

1. MT explains that group will be walkin’ in their own winter wonderland” by exercising their  lower body. This is important to daily life so that clients maintain lower body strength to prevent falls and independence. 
2. MT demonstrates toe taps and cues group to follow 
3. MT sings song, accompanying on guitar, while continuing to cue movement 
4. MT demonstrates seated marches, and cues group to follow 
5. MT sings through song again

I love both of these movement interventions because they add a fun twist to typical movement activities. Incorporating visuals such as snowflakes helps to motivate clients to participate and helps with orienting them to the season, and using a song about walking encourages clients to move their lower body!This song is also great for encouraging reminiscence and utilizing technology such as a smart board or iPad to show YouTube videos or photos of winter scenes. 

 

Joy to the World: Vocal warm-up:

1. MT prompts group to sing along to “Joy to the World” 
2. MT explains to clients that we will now work out our speaking and singing muscles by adding some different words to the song. This is important to strengthen and maintain good articulation and breath support so that others can understand what one is saying and to keep oxygen flowing through the body!
3. First, replace original lyrics with “la” 
4. Next, replace lyrics with “doo”
5. Replace lyrics with “wow”
6. Sing original words one final time

I have used this intervention with a couple of my older adult groups, and I love it because it uses a song and melody that they know well, and is great for working vocal muscles. Plus it is tons of fun to add in silly words or sounds. My favorite one to use is “meow” or “wow” because it has several sounds within it, making it great for working on articulation!

 

We Wish You a Merry Christmas/Holiday Songwriting

Since Christmas isn’t the only Holiday that happens around this time of year, I think it is a great idea to try and incorporate other holidays into sessions. One idea is to use the well-known song “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and after singing through the original, changing the lyrics to “We Wish You a Happy Hanukkah” and then “We Wish You a Happy Kwanzaa.” This is a fun way to end your session with an upbeat song.

I hope this gives you some ideas for your own holiday themed sessions! 

See you in the next post,

Audrey