Finally, you can listen to the animal motif songs!
Just follow these links (or cut and paste into your browser).....

Rooster's song:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30432350/Sensory%20Theatre%20Animal%20Motifs/01%20Rooster%27s%20Song.m4a
Goat's song:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30432350/Sensory%20Theatre%20Animal%20Motifs/02%20Goat%27s%20Song.m4a
Donkey's song:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/30432350/Sensory%20Theatre%20Animal%20Motifs/03%20Donkey%27s%20Song.m4a
 
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So today when we arrived, Chris let us know that the AIR grant had made the school newsletter - with some great photos of the parent and child group from the sensory walk.
I felt much more relaxed today, having done both the drama and the make and do for goat yesterday with Rachel. Our first session in Banksia was an ambitious one - we were going to combine drama and make and do as we only had one session with them. Felt like Franky and I worked well together. Wonderful to have the enthusiasm of Maureen and Suzanne. We instinctively began using the mirrors from the beginning of the session and this seemed to really enhance the children's experiences. Alex, Jack, Samuel and Alex Ridge seemed to engage with both the drama and the making aspect.
Next session was the make and do session with Rm 2 and Bluegum. It was great just to be able to focus on the make and do. Even though there were only 2 kids from Bluegum present in the session - it still felt like a large group - 8 of them. Learning from the session with Banksia we also used the mirrors throughout the session. After we finished making our masks we invited the children to join us in a dance of the goat. Dawn, Harry and Katie were enthusiastic in joining us on the floor dancing. Other students danced from their seats. Again I felt like the pretending aspect was easier today after our session yesterday. It will be interesting to see what happens with Rooster and Donkey - whether this aspect of pretending will get easier.
Final session for the day at Belmay - again we combined drama with Make n Do. We had an hour and this seemed ample enough time for this group to complete both tasks. I was interested to see (with the exception of Lachlan) how easy it seemed for the Belmay group to pretend. My sense is that they love the stuff. This is also what we had observed with Tim's music class and the blood song.
Had a good chat with Melinda about the application of our residency learnings for other schools. We talked about what elements would be essential in a pre-show kit (songs, 2d book, bag book) and what other resources schools might like to choose ( drama incursions, make and do lesson plans). Melinda pointed out that schools often planned far in advance - so the previous year was the best time to try and plan a tour. On the other hand we agreed that the schools would really appreciate something made especially for PMLD kids. Not sure about the best way to investigate this.....