By Haven Mitchell-Rose 

This week in our Storytime classes, we explored SOUNDS! Here are some sound themed activities to help you and your little one turn up the volume at home.  

Experience writing your own song, with the help of some classic favorites. This activities is great for the older end of our Spellbound age range. 



Materials:
Paper 
Writing utensil 
Your singing voice
Your thinking cap 

Step 1: Together with you child, select a song that you love and know well (short and simple ones are best! ex: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star)
Step 2: Play and/ or sing the song a few times to jog your memories 
Step 3: Ask your child what they want their song to be about, pull out your writing materials and go through the song line by line, making sure your new lyrics fit the rhythm as closely as possible. 
NOTE: Your lyrics do not have to rhyme, but they absolutely can if you want to take on that challenge 
Step 4: Sing your song together! You may also choose to practice performing it for each other 

A sound based activity for our younger friends in our age range. 



Materials:
Music player 

Step 1: Play sounds of different locations 
Step 2: Demonstrate making some of the sounds you hear and adding your own. See if you baby joins in 
Step 3: Move/ dance around the room with your baby in a way befitting the current sound scape 

Soundscapes 
Ocean
River
Rainforest 
Woods 
Rain 
Morning 
Night 

Don't forget to share pictures/ videos of your sound related fun to our Facebook Page with the hashtag #SpellboundSounds.

By Haven Mitchell-Rose 

Color is one of the very first ways in which children learn how to interact with their surroundings. Not only does it help them to form connections between the things in their world, but an understanding of color allows them to communicate with you about what they are experiencing, both literally and in the abstract through emotional association. This week in our Storytime classes, we explored color through playing with scarves and making color collages. Now you and your little one can bring some color into your home with these activities! 

Here's another colorful twist on an old classic. This adaptation of "Red Light, Green Light" is great for slightly older children who are more mobile, and developmentally able to make connections between color and emotion. 

Materials: 
Colored pieces of construction paper OR blank paper and colored crayons/ pencils/ markers (all optional)

Step 1: If you and your child would like to have a visual representation of the colors used in this game, this is when you can use construction paper and markers to make them 
Step 2: Clear away furniture to create an open space, and stand at one end of the room with your child at the opposite end. 
Step 3: Explain that when you call out and/or show your child a color, they must move toward you in whatever way that color makes them feel. Ex: If the color is red, they might stomp their feet and cross their arms as they move toward you to show anger. Tell them that when you want them to stop you will call out, "Freeze!" at which point they should stay in place until you call the next color. 
*Challenge: If you have two or more little ones, you can make it a race! Whoever gets to you first gets to call out the colors for the next round. If there is only one child, when they get to you, you can swap places so that they get a chance to call out colors too. 

Don't forget to share pictures of your colorful fun to our Facebook Page with the hashtag #colormespellbound

Circus Themed Storytime Class at PowerHouse Books, this past Monday at 4:30pm. For a complete list of class times and locations visit www.spellboundtheatre.com 

By Haven Mitchell-Rose 

Only a few weeks into school, and I for one could use a vacation. Luckily, I get to interact with little ones whose active imaginations transport us to any number of exotic locations, from a hovering alien hut on the moon, to a lavishly decorated palace. This week at our Explorers classes, the power of our little friends' imaginations helped us travel to the circus, and through the subway system. We also used imagination to create shapes, music, and movement. There is no limit to what a child's imagination can do, and now you and your little one can see where the following imagination activities will take you. 

Music is a great way to get the creative juices flowing, and makes a great launch pad from which imagination can take wing. 

Materials:
Music player 
Your imagination 

Step 1: Play a piece of music for your child. This can be anything from Oldies to Classical and everything in between. Music should be continuously playing throughout this activity 
Step 2: Ask them what the music makes them think of or feel
Step 3: Ask follow up questions. For instance, if they say "It makes me think of being under the ocean," ask "what kind of fish do you see around you?" or "What do the fish look like?" or "What are the fish doing?"
Step 4: Bring it to life! If your child says, "I see an octopus over there" go to where they are pointing and become the octopus through physicality and octopus-esque vocal choices. 
Step 5: Encourage them to join you. Say, "Show me your best fish face, show me how a fish swims. Let's swim together!" swim around the room, you as the octopus, your child as the fish 
*Infant Modification: If you little one is pre-verbal and/ or pre-mobile, observe their movement, noises, and demeanor during the music, and dance around with them based upon their reactions to the music. 

Materials:
Blank sheet(s) of paper 
Pencils, crayons, markers
YOUR IMAGINATION 

Step 1: Orient the piece of paper so that it is Portrait style, and fold it into thirds. 
Step 2: Ask your child to draw a head on the top third. Don't look at what they are drawing! When they are done have them fold it up and pass it to you
Step 3: Draw a torso in the middle section. Don't let your child see what you draw! Fold it over again, and pass it back to your child (or to another child if one is present)
Step 4: Child draws a pair of feet. When they are finished unfold the paper, and look at the mismatched person you have imagined! 
Step 5: Work with your child to create this person. What is their favorite color? What is their job? What is there favorite food? What kind of home do they live in? etc...
*Challenge: Can your child and/ or you walk like your person? Or Talk like them? Or sit in a chair, or eat a snack or pick up toys like they would? 

Don't forget to share pictures of your mismatched person and/ or the music-inspired world you create to our Facebook Page with the hashtage #imaginespellbound 

This is Sharla. She likes to swim and eat dog food, but she does NOT like playing tag. 

Created by: myself and Annika Kline (age 4)