Fall Season Happiness on a card

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Noticing Happiness in the Fall

It's fall. One of my favorite times to teach, minor keys, spooky stuff, stories about spiders, pumpkins, and my students are full of exuberant high spirits. It's also a time to introduce new sets of Happiness Cards.

Little Cards Big Impact

I'm still marveling over the impact of these little cards. I was at the dentist this week for a cleaning. The last time I was there, there was a new dental assistant. At the end of that appointment, I had written her a card about how nice she was and that it was good chatting with her at the beginning of the appointment. She was 19 years old and had just started working there.

She was there this time too. She remembered the card, and said that she was really nervous when she started working there and that the card made her feel better (6 months later) and that she had the card on a board at home to remind her. Of course I had to give her another one- it was so nice to get feedback on the impact of the cards over time.

I started using the cards in January, and now that we are at the beginning of another school year, I'm wondering what impact they have had and will continue to have with my students. Since I'm using the cards weekly with all of my students, there are always new ones on the drawing board. Part of the fun for the students is a collection of the different cards over time. What's New

This fall we have two new Halloween Sets, and a local set (which is what I drew from with the dental assistant). Halloween Set 1 is art by Beatrice Powell from the original Musicland Fall Season. I can't believe that those illustrations are 20 years old and that Nikolai was 6 when we played them! "Watch out for Red Giant" is one of my absolute favorites from this collection. The song is a cautionary tale told by Jack O-Lantern to little pumpkins warning them to stay away from Red Giant who wants to put them in a pie. The cards are extra special for my littles who are playing those pieces now.

The second Halloween set by Nate Ashley, who has the right temperament and style. His cards are already popular with the locals.

Speaking of locals, the 3rd set that came out this month was another one with the art of Beatrice Powell, this set has the view that I see every morning, as well as some of her popular Coupeville scenes.

Get a few packs and see what impact you have on your students or those around you. Happy noticing!

Sarah

P.S. If you want to check out the original fall season pieces you can check out the blog here for free pdf downloads of the original music.