Equipment:
Small drums like dumbek and frame drums, tubanos and drums that stand on the floor, lots of bass drums.
Soundshapes, Boomwhackers, Frogs and lots of percussion.
The Sessions:
First up were a 16+ group then the 10 to 16s. Twenty in each group plus 1 to 1 LSA's. All of them were wheelchair bound.
The Setup:
Stacked all the drums in the centre, placed percussion and the rest on tables around the hall.
First I said hello and invited LSA's to come and find instruments for themselves and their charges. Suggested some children may like to simply hold a big drum and feel the vibrations, others could have bells tied to their wrists. Suggested we needed a few adults drumming most of the time to keep a beat going.
Activities:
With each group I did four sections. First I set it up then I went round the room making eye contact with each child individually if possible.
The beat: I held a small Surdo under my arm set up a beat then let each child feel the vibrations from the surdo. some felt the air on their face, some I put it on their lap, some rested their hand on it.
A song: I sang a call and response song with the hang or a djembe then circled singing to each child.
Boomwhackers: I said take as many as you like and play them where you like. I went round finding the sweet place to play my two boomies on their wheel chairs.
A rhythm: We played "I like chocolate cake" shouting the rhythm as we went.
DANCING!: There was only one girl who could get out of her wheel chair. She was dancing on the edge, I drew her into the centre, then a few others were dancing with their arms and upper body so I invited them in too. Soon the centre was a very dangerous place for me to be with children whizzing and twirling in their motorised chairs and pumping their arms in the air.
Feedback was great, as an outsider it is difficult to tell what effect the session is having. This conversation illustrates that.
LSA Mark had a great time?
ME How can you tell. (This lad could apparently only move his head)
LSA Well his eyes were moving so I knew he was interested in what was going on and he was holding his head to the front, if he is bored he lets it drop to the side and his eyes don't move.
