Kids’ Songs… a la carte Facilitator Training PrograM
…a fun way to teach health and safety lessons!
Join us for a fun way to teach health and safety messages with music! No need to be able to sing, play an instrument or read music (but it’s great if you do!). Teachers, peer counselors, staff, volunteers of youth-serving organizations – join us to learn how to share important health and safety messages with children and youth in a fun and entertaining way. Ten original songs complement the messages and will be performed by program creator and singer-songwriter Christina Nordstrom with Ted Mello. Wellness experts will be on hand to share in the presentation and to answer questions.
Please see www.christinanordstrom.com for more information about the program and songs. 
This program is sponsored through a grant from the Kiwanis Club of Sandwich awarded to the Sandwich Arts Alliance.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The “Train-the-Trainer Project” features a collection of original songs for trainees to use in presenting the program components to youth audiences. Using a multi-sensory instruction model, trainees are taught how to help children learn using the program’s topical songs and facilitate complementary discussions and demonstrations about the various health and safety messages as presented in the songs. Recordings of the songs are available; trainees need not be skilled in reading music or performance. First developed by singer-songwriter and former award-winning health educator, Christina Nordstrom, for the Rockland, Massachusetts elementary school, the songs cover such topics as making healthier choices, eating a variety of foods, increasing physical activity, washing hands properly, first aid for choking, bullying prevention and valuing diversity. The “a la carte menu” of songs includes: The Vitamin Alphabet, V-A-R-I-E-T-Y, The Fruit & Veggie Song, MORE or Less of Me, Colonel Kernel, Lipid Blues, One Great Big World Community, Wash My Hands!, Save the Day! and Lemonade Rap. How to use the toolkit, lead sheets and learning activities, making teaching aides and guidance for discussions make up the rest of the curriculum. The instruction model is informed by the work of Paul Perret and Jane Fox with elementary students in North Carolina. They contend in their research and subsequent book, A Well-Tempered Mind, that music helps open learning pathways to help children learn more effectively – not learn how to play music, but simply to learn – that “...the experience of music enhances thought and learning in unexpected directions, well beyond the simple act of enjoying the sound ... how music engages the brain’s cognitive capabilities, from memory and language to emotional processing.” Their work demonstrated significant increases in reading and math scores in third graders in a North Carolina school. The program creator and project facilitator, Christina Nordstrom is a former award-winning health education specialist, having worked in the corporate, community and public health sectors. As an example of her experience implementing a train-the-trainer based program, while at [then] Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, she served as CPR and First Aid Instructor Trainer for the American Heart Association’s Southeastern Division. As an instructor trainer she trained and certified new CPR Instructors on how to teach CPR and basic first aid. Ms. Nordstrom also incorporated the songs from “Kids’ Songs a la Carte” in performances for schools and community events during her career as a singer-songwriter. Now in retirement she says, “I consider this to be something of a ‘legacy project’ for me; I’ve spent my professional career in health education and have been successful as well in my avocation as a singer-songwriter, performing for a variety of audiences over the past 35 years. My hope is to share this important health and safety education using this innovative approach so that more children and youth, and their families, might benefit from the messages.” |
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