News and Notes from The Johnson Center
GrapeUp! Come Together! - Making Music
JCCHD | Tue, July 21, 2015 |On June 27th we had a crazy Saturday full of music with the Johnson Center at the Pease Elementary playground. It was the Johnson Center’s fourth “Grape Up! Come Together!” event in our summer series, and we had a blast. This week Lauren. a very special guest from the TexARTS Association, taught us all about music and instruments. Lauren read us the book My Family Plays Music by Judy Cox and showed us all the different instruments in the story, like triangles, tambourines, and drums. Our team of American Sign Language interpreters and our Spanish interpreter translated the story as it was read.
Afterward, Lauren and her duet partner Corey taught us a short song and we all got to sing along together.
We then got to make our very own instrument shakers out of paper towel rolls, beans, rice, and lots of glitter. Everyone had a lot of fun making music and shaking them around.
The parents who were there got to learn about child safety, making these cool pamphlets with their children’s fingerprints in them in case they are ever separated.
Next came the music parade for which we all picked out our favorite instrument from the huge box of instruments. There were maracas, xylophones, clackers, and shakers—even an accordion! Once we all had an instrument, we got to march around the playground, playing our song.
To wind things down everyone got to write their own story music book, where we practiced writing and using nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Since there were so many awesome volunteers who worked one-on-one with the children on the crafts and books, parents got to sit nearby and relax with complimentary coffee and snacks.
Everyone had fun in the photo booth, taking silly pictures with our photographer. And, as always, we had an allergen-friendly snack at the end of the event. This week we had KIND bars and OH-SO Organic juice.
We had a great turnout and lots of fun, and we hope to see even more families in the next couple of weeks as our summer series continues with more activities and fun!
