Thursday, February 18, 2016

Concerts coming soon...........

Our spring concerts are quickly approaching and the music room is experiencing things never done before.
I'm taking a different approach this year and (gasp) trying something new. I always do a mass concer in one evening with all 6 grades (K-5). It makes for a very long night and is exhausting. This year I'm breaking them into 2 grade levels on 3 different nights. Yes, it's making more work for me but it's less students at once to coordinate. I'm hoping it also allows the students to feel more special about their night. 
Kindergarten and 1st grade is presenting on Tuesday March 1st. They are sing and dancing folk songs. 
2nd and 3rd grade is Tuesday March 8. They are singing songs about good character, folk dancing and doing a rhythm routine. The dance below is of 3rd grade dancing The Little Shoemaker folk dance. 
4th and 5th grade are keeping a patriotic theme. They are proudly learning The Star Spangled Banner. We've had interesting discussion as to the meaning of this old English. What they thought they were hearing wasn't even close to the real words. "Jose can you see" thinking the song was about a guy named Jose. They are also doing a combined dance, rhythm routine, 5th band, 4th recorders and each doing a basketball routine. Below is a VERY beginning stage of a 5th grade class starting their routine. We chose 80s song Hungry Like a Wolf. I'm not really sure why, but the pattern is a simple form  with easy patterns to hear. 4th grade is doing the Ghostbusters theme song. They are all LOVING it. It took a lot of thinking outside the box for me but my boys have really bought into it and are liking the difference. I hope to have some performance videos in a couple of weeks