I led three activities at Apple Ridge Farm. I’ll describe each one here, since I did similar activities with each group.

In general, since it was a wide age range of kids, I used some circlesinging but also brought instruments to demonstrate (guitar, drum, and harmonium) and sang interactive songs with them.

6/27
This was the biggest crowd, about 20 kids. We did some stretching and moving to warm up our bodies, then played a “freeze” game using a rhythm to move to. I taught them a song called “Put Your Roots Down” by Molly Hartwell. Then I showed them my shamanic drum, moved around so they could touch it and feel the vibration. We sang “The Earth is Our Mother” (author unknown) with the drum. And then I sang with them “You Gotta Sing” (author unknown) with the guitar, which is a “zipper” song, asking them for things that they like to do to incorporate into the song. Then we sang a “Hallelujah” chant together with the harmonium.

7/2
I had a smaller crowd, about 15 kids. We did some stretching and moving to warm up, and then played “zip, zap, zop”, a game where you pass sounds around in a circle. I taught them more songs that we sang together (“Rise Up Singing”, author unknown, and “Thank You for this Day” by Karen Drucker). We sang “Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” with the guitar and a chant I created called “Let the Waves Ripple Out” with the drum.

7/11
I had a smaller group, about 8, since there were less people at camp on this day and most of the kids went swimming or zip lining. We did a body percussion game called “Tum Pa Chi”, I taught them a body percussion sequence, and we sang “I Give Love”, a simple song I wrote. And then Miss BJ taught us some of her body percussion and we sang “I Give Love” together with her.

All three events went well! We had some fun and some of the kids really enjoyed it. The younger kids especially liked the interactive silly songs. “Hole in the Bottom of the Sea” was a big hit. I learned to lean into the chaos of it all. Some kids were quiet, others were enthusiastic and engaging, others were just bouncing off the walls and couldn’t focus. All of it was good. I think the connection and the love sink in no matter what. The last day, even though it was a small group, a few of them were really engaged in learning the song and wanted to learn the three parts and keep singing it. (“I give love, I give joy, I give gratitude.”) One of the kids said, “That’s my favorite song now.” What made me most proud was when the kids really enjoyed the songs that we sang.

I apologize that I didn’t take any pictures! It was pretty chaotic just getting the kids together and doing the activities, and I didn’t think to ask somebody to take pictures.

This was an activity as part of Apple Ridge Farm’s summer camp for underserved youth. The families were all given Arts Connect Neighbors catalogs and informed about the program and the various arts activities that are available. So I think a great next step would be to follow up with these families and encourage them to host an activity or some activities in their neighborhoods. Maybe we can get contact information from Apple Ridge or Miss BJ, or find out if the neighborhoods represented have any existing neighborhood groups we can reach out to.