The “Move! Sing! Play Along and Learn!” CD series is a treat for parent and child or teacher and class. Margie La Bella’s pleasant, soothing voice is easy to understand as she gently encourages kids to listen and learn through music. As a music therapist and special educator, she has written and produced lively entertaining songs for all kids introducing them to pop, jazz, folk, rap, swing, reggae and world music styles. The first CD in the series, “Move!” focuses on building receptive language skills as kids follow directions to “rub your tummy until the music stops,” follow the “Multi-Step Blues,” or learn concepts in the “Opposite Jam.” Move on to “Sing!” and enjoy vocal play and expressive language as kids learn to follow fun syllables that lead to a song about Mister Monkey or the Leeway Train with related actions to match the rhythm. The “Play!” CD builds auditory discrimination and processing as kids move to the sounds of rhythm instruments and their homemade band–imitating and learning soft/loud, slow/fast, matching movements to representative musical patterns and instruments. Raise your arms up and down to the slide whistle, or stamp your feet to the drum as sounds and directions are combined to build memory. Finally, “Mixing it Up!” combines the lessons learned and gets kids moving, singing and playing because now “I’ve Got the Music In Me.” “Body Rap” is one of my favorites as, “I saw my hands and they started to clap, I thought of my nose and my face started humming, my whole body started to move and my shoulders got in the groove” as movements are added while matched to a body part and rhythmic phrase. So gather the kids around to move to the music and maybe in the middle of all the fun, we’ll produce some good little listeners.
Available at musictherapytunes.com
