Peter Pan Jr.

I have been neglecting my blog for the past month due to the craziness that belongs to "musical season."  Our annual after school production begins with rehearsals in January and continues through the end of April.  It is a highlight of our school year and brings our school community together with great pride.

This year, our show was Peter Pan, Jr.  We love the quality and resources provided by the Broadway Jr. Show Kits. 

My co-director is an amazing seamstress and can be credited with much of the sewing that is done.  We also had wonderful parents who help pull the show together.

Check out some pictures from the show.  I hope you enjoy them.  I promise to return with more blogging and classroom ideas soon!

The children in the nursery and Peter entering the window.

Tinkerbell

Captain Hook

Smee

Darling Children

Peter Pan

Chief and Tiger Lily

3 Brave Indians

Lost Boys

Fairies

Mermaids...Was quite convenient since we did The Little Mermaid last year.

Dreams, Wishes, and Fairy Tales 2014 Concert Theme

This year’s concert has come and gone again.  It’s amazing how fast the year flies.   It’s hard to believe another year’s choral performance is over.  I was really pleased with how the students performed and blended their voices.  The program had a nice variety, while keeping with a theme, and also kept audience interest.

This year, my concert was themed around “Dreams, Wishes, and Fairy Tales.”  I had three ensembles perform: the auditioned Orff Ensemble who rehearses after school, the 5^th grade chorus, and the 6^th grade chorus.  We did close out with all students singing a song together (which is always intentionally planned that way to help keep audience members and students through the entire concert.)

The Orff Ensemble performed the following:

Oh What a Day: A beautiful instrumental canon by Gagne about dreaming about the beauty in each day.

Heart and Soul:  Need I say more?

All the Pretty Little Horses, a gorgeous lullaby arranged by DeLelles and Kriske

In the Jungle: This fun tune can be heard in the fairy tale story of the Lion King

Ding, Dong: This canon comes from the Orff Volume 1

Rondo #31: This snazzy Rondo is very impressive and is in Orff Volume 1

5^th grade chorus performed the following:

The Spirit of Adventure from Disney-Pixar’s Up: Giacchino/Arr. Shaw is a perky opener that talks about dreaming of adventures and travels.

Magical Kingdom by John Rutter is a beautiful piece that describes a magical kingdom of dreams and stories.

John Henry arranged by Dilworth tells the story of the folk tale about John Henry.  Students learn about John Henry in 5^th grade at our school so this piece had some nice cross curricular opportunities.

We Can Plant a Forest by Papoulis and Greenly talks about dreaming of making the world a better place for the future, in a world music arrangement.  We used djembe with this piece.

Any Dream Will Do from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Rice and Webber and Arranged by Huff.  The kids loved it and had great energy. 

6^th grade chorus performed the following:

Kusimama (Stand Tall) by Papoulis which talks about standing tall and believing in yourself.  Using two languages, this world piece sounds great with djembe.

Deep in the Meadow (Lullaby) by Collins, burnett and Arranged by Huff is from the Hunger Games.  The lulling tune is beautiful.  I told my kids to “make their momma’s cry” while they sang this one with heart. 

Dreams from the Triology of Dreams by Hughes and Dilworth was performed with violin accompaniment.  There are some tricky parts to fit together at the end of the piece.  The text encourages students hold fast to their dreams.

The Tailor of Gloucester Arranged by Geibler is a perky folk story tale of a tailor and the mouse.  Two partner songs occur in the middle and the lively tune is always a hit.

Over the Rainbow (with P/A CD) by Harburd, Arlen, Kamakawiwo’ole and arranged by Beck was a lovely way to end the 6^th grade portion, when students were singing in our school concert for the last time in their elementary careers.  We used the P/A cd because the ukulele part was a bit too challenging for our students.  They kids loved this and provided them a great chance to practice legato singing with emotion. 

Together, to finish up, we sang:

When You Wish Upon a Star from Disney’s Pinocchio by Washington and Harline and arranged by Rhea is a simple arrangement that joyfully shares the famous tune in a manner that encourages everyone to dream of a better tomorrow.

This concert is over and now it’s time to start ordering music for next year already.  I’m already getting excited about what is to come next!

Glow Stick Dancing

A teacher in my building just sent me a youtube video of glow stick dances.  I had never seen these till today.  All I can say is, awesome!

I'm thinking this would be awesome to do as a staff for one of our motivational assemblies.  I'm also thinking my Orff ensemble kids could really get into something like this.  My wheels are turning.

Here is a great blog post I found to explain a little bit more about assembling your "glow stick" costume.  Check it out!

http://teachinghappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/2013/01/talent-show-idea-for-teachers-glowstick_21.html

Holiday Who Ha Link Up

When I started at my school, there was already a traditional "holiday-sing."  Every year on the last day of school in December, we'd file into the gym and each grade level would sing a song or two, and we'd do some carols together.  This was fine and dandy, but I decided I wanted something that would be more conducive to bringing the whole school together on more than one day.  Thus, our new holiday celebration has been birthed.

Each year now, for the past five years, I have chosen a famous book made into a movie.  (We've done Polar Express, The Grinch, Charlie Brown Christmas, Elf, and this year The Year Without a Santa Claus).  We create a whole school theme for the entire month.  I provide classroom teachers with cross curricular activities to go along with our theme, and they create some of their own.  The PTO has come on board and they decorate the entire school to go with our theme.  It always looks incredible.

Then, for the music, I teach each grade level one or two songs from the film or movie.  I buy performance tracks and the music ahead of time, of course.  I then write a readers theater or play that the faculty acts out based on the movie/book.  The students stand and interject their music at the appropriate time, to tie things together, while they remain enthralled throughout the assembly, watching their teachers perform.  Some teachers have even been willing to sing solos.  Our superintendent and principal even participate!

Both faculty and staff dress in costumes this day as well.  We gift prizes for the students who look most like the characters in the book/movie.  Almost 100 % of our faculty and staff dress up.  We love this day!

Before the performance, I make a funny movie of the characters for the year taking over the school that has multiple faculty members in it.  This is always a fun highlight.

Parents come and watch the performance as well.  Communities collaborate on costumes and overall, everyone is just psyched.  This has been such a huge community builder for our school and is something we pride ourselves on.

I love that the music the students are working on has a theme and works together so well, instead of being randomly pieced together.  The music is learned in class, but throughout December, students are taught music from other cultures and traditions as well, as part of their music learning.

Enjoy a few pictures from past years' festivities.  I will post about this year's amazement after it is over!  I can't wait to hear what you do and get ideas too!

To link up, you will simply need to:

• Save the linky party graphic above onto your computer (by right clicking), then include it into your post, with a link back to this post.
• Blog about your holiday "who-ha" celebrations or traditions. Include pictures with links when possible.
• Click the button to join the linky party! 

Thanks to Summer Pitman for her frames and fonts.  Check out her TPT store.  

Hallelujah Performance

One of my students' parents uploaded a recording of our performance of Hallelujah at our concert earlier this month.  I was so please with their performance and the kids just LOOOOVED doing this piece! Hopefully, you enjoy hearing them as much as they enjoyed performing!

Hallelujah

Hollywood Themed Concert

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  It was concert week, plus I was finishing a grad class, so life had a way of getting away from me.

My two choirs and Orff ensemble performed their annual concert this week.  All of the music was selected from television or movies, be it old or more recent.  The repertoire range was broad, consisting of folk tunes, show tunes, and world music.  We sang in major, minor, and the modes and had pieces that were of duple, triple, and mixed meter. 

I decorated the lobby with movie displays donated by our local movie theater.

I added hollywood stars to our floor tiles, with names of the 5th and 6th grade teachers, specialists, office staff, and principal.

I even rolled out the red carpet for the students' entrance.

 

We performed the following:

Orff Ensemble:
Russian Dance: Tschaikovsky/Arr. Doug Edwards
Call Me Maybe? : Jepsen and Wright/Arr. Martin
The Theme Song from the Office:  Arr. Martin
Don't Worry, Be Happy: McFerrin/Arr Doug Edwards

5th Grade Chorus:
Dig a Little Deeper from the Princess and the Frog: Newman/Arr. Brymer
Shenandoah: Arr. Dilworth
Fiddler on the Roof Medley: Harnick and Bock/Arr. Gallina
The Inch Worm from Hans Christian Andersen: Loesser/Arr. Huff
Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) From the World Cup: Shakira, Mahola, Hill, Victor, Paul, and Kojidie/Arr. Brymer

6th Grade Chorus:
Seize the Day from Newsies: Feldman and Menken/Arr. Emerson
Shady Grove: Arr. Cary Miller (We used the fiddle part with this and it was lovely!!)
Turn the World Around from the Muppets; Belafonte and Freedman/Arr. Emerson
All You Need is Love: Lennon and McCartney/Arr. Billingsley
Hallelujah: Cohen/Arr. Emerson (The kids self-selected this one...It was gorgeous!  They LOVED it!)
Touch the Sky from Brave: Madel and Andrews/Arr. Huff (We also had a fiddle on this one!)

Combined Choirs:
So Long, Farewell from the Sound of Music

It was a great night of fun music making.