Winter is coming……our winter concert, that is! I am excited for what the kids have prepared and look forward to sharing it with their parents! As you know, I have been working on STOMP pieces with the older kids, but the kids have taken them to a new place ~ which of course, I LOVE!!!! The fourth graders want to add a Christmas narrative to theirs and the fifth graders are fired up about playing a chord progression with Boomwhackers (the same as you would use with hand chimes or bells) as either to be played while they play their rhythms or as a B Section. We are still working out those details.

FOURTH GRADE:

I teach in a Presbyterian School, so I am able to use religious material as part of my repertoire. I found this poem online and thought it fit well. The kids wanted a play, but because of time constraints and Covid 19 logistics, it was not possible. I think this is a nice alternative, though: Christmas Carol by Sara Teasdale

The presentation will connect to the holiday season while meeting state standards and I always try to have kids create at least some part of their performance! They need to make it theirs!

I will assign kids to read each stanza and create a TALA for kids to play their rhythmic pieces. We haven’t decided instrumentation yet, but my hope is for each short composition to reflect the stanza it is following.

It will be lots of fun in any case!

FIFTH GRADE:

Below is the simple chord progression that I used with my 5th graders. Each student was assigned a Boomwhacker and was to play when their note came up. (I love using Boomwhackers right now because you can clean them so easily after each use!)

Just like in bells, kids need to count and pay attention to the music to know when they came in. The kids loved playing it and were excited to see if they could come in at the right time!

The question we need to explore is when do we want to play the rhythms we created ~ while some kids play the progression or have this be the A section and use the created rhythms as the B, C, D and E sections….. you know how I love Rondo form!!

So we will answer all of these questions in the coming classes…. December is coming up fast, but I would rather have kids have a say than do it myself. I am sure there will be extra rehearsals, but it is all worth it in the end! #Ilovemyjob