I wanted to let you know that I used the Octaband this week in class and
we all had a terrific time with it. Thanks so much. The families love
the colors, the fabric and the versatility. It was all fun.
-Marilyn Schwartz, Kids' MusicRound, Early Childhood Music and Movement, http://www.kidsmusicround.com/
My students love the Octaband. It is an excellent tool for our gross motor groups. It promotes visual attention, coordination, motor planning, strength and endurance. Students of varying ages, cognitive levels and physical abilities can participate and most of all... have fun. The little ones love the texture. They like to wrap it around themselves. Sometimes I wrap 2 of the legs around them, and the kids then have to get themselves out of it. Their very favorite activity is to bounce the beanbag on it. The turtle beanbag with the flat bottom works best. The octaband helps improve their attention span. They call it the THNEED, from Dr. Seuss’ Lorax. (“A Thneed's a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need!") They do sometimes fight over which color band they get. They love to be the one who is underneath in the center.
One particular student who is shy and doesn't typically participate in our gross motor group activities without continuous prompting, etc... loves the Octaband. He is a 4 year old little boy with a cortical vision impairment and developmental delays. The Octaband brought him out of his shell. It is the one activity that he really enjoys. We tried the "mine"/ "ours" game this week and it was a big hit. Thanks again for sharing the evolution of the Octaband with our department.
Sincerely,
Kelly McDermott, DPT, Boston Public Schools
This was a posting to the ADTA listserve on 3/23/08
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
I have been using the Octaband very successfully
with many different populations, e.g, Alzheimer's, elderly, adult psychiatric
and developmentally disabled. I find the sixteen arm type especially useful.
Congratulations on creating such an innovative dance/movement therapy
tool!
Peace,
Nancy Koprak,MA,ADTR,LCAT
This posting allows me the opportunity to introduce the wonderful improvisational dance class that Itake called Dancing Outside the Lines with Joan Green in the Cambridge, Massachusetts area. This is only my third year with Joan, but for others in the class, it's probably more like 15 years. The class began, I believe, for dancers over age 50, but has opened up to include a few younger dancers. Our ages probably span late 30's to mid 80's. Joan inspires us with different warm ups and structures each week, and always keeps us on task, encouraging our spontaneity and heightening aesthetic appreciation.
Soon I will post some pictures taken by photographer Ian Travis Barnard of our class using the Octaband, the first time the Octaband has been used, to my knowledge, in an improvisational dance class for adults. Feel free to comment.
Julia Priest is Director of Music Together of Newton , an early-childhood music education program based in Newton, Massachusetts. A graduate of Yale, Boston University and Massachusetts General Hospital’s Institute of Health Professions, Priest specializes in using eurhythmics as well as the Alexander Technique to teach music and performance skills to children. She participates in musical activities in churches and synagogues, and teaches music at elementary and preschools, in and around Boston.
Julia has just begun using the octaband, and wrote to say: "Verrry
successful today in preschools a capella with Pop Goes the Weasel. Seated,
bouncing it on the A melody and swaying on the B melody; standing,
revolving/skipping on the A melody and swaying again on B. Of course Pop! was
tons of fun and eventually built into all jumping at once."
Thanks to Julia for her feedback and her ideas.
Thanks to Julia, Carol Mersky, Principal of Temple Emanuel Preschool, the children and parents of this preschool class for their willingness to have pictures taken.
This is an image of a mother and baby in one of Suzy's groups using the Octaband together.
Following are images from a children's group in which Suzy used the Octaband.
This is a place for Octaband users to share their ideas and ask questions of each other and of Donna Newman-Bluestein.
