Perfect Poolside Planning- Concert Planning

I'm so excited to be participating in Lindsay Jervis's Blog Hop called Perfect Poolside Planning!  (Just a note: the hop will officially be ready on Saturday.  If you try to hop through today (Friday) all the links might not be ready yet.)

All the participants are taking on a different element of planning pertaining to teaching music and I have concert planning!  I love planning concerts.  If you notice, I didn't say program planning.  I've got to give you a little background here.

When I started teaching I used those super cute, predone musicals that had speaking parts.  The parents loved them, the kids liked them and I was okay with them.    Now, before I go on, I don't want you to think that I'm going to start bashing pre-made musicals or if you do things differently I don't think what you do is right or wrong.  I'm just going to state where I am in my teaching and what I do.  That's the beauty, we all do things differently and there's no "right or wrong."

I struggled with the pre-made musicals and here's why: I felt that I was spending more time teaching speaking parts and less time teaching music.  When I started teaching I saw my students for an hour a week. Then when I started teaching in my current district I was seeing the students on a 3-day rotation, where the students have music for 45 minutes every 3rd day.  At my current school, as we've grown, some classes are now on a 4 day rotation (music for 45 minutes every 4th day).  Next year?  My 3rd and 1st graders will be on a 5 day rotation.  That means the kids will have music 45 minutes once a week.  I can't rationalize spending time teaching speaking parts, I want my students making music.

So, for MANY years now I've been doing concerts instead of programs.  There are not speaking parts.  And the parents don't complain, in fact they love them.  Again, I'm not right and someone else is wrong.  If you do speaking parts I'm in no way saying that's wrong, I just don't do them.

Okay, now that I have that "out in the open," here's what I think of when planning a concert:

• A theme.  Yep, I don't do a pre-done musical but I do like having a theme that ties the song literature all together.  Often times I will also look at the grade level curriculum that the classroom teachers are working on to see if there's anything I can piggy back on.  For instance, my 2nd graders study weather systems so I did a rain themed concert one year.  The 4th graders study Colorado history so I DO use some Colorado songs that were written by a retired CO music teacher.
• Song literature that fits the theme.
• Song literature that practices known rhythmic or melodic concepts
• Song literature that I will use for preparation of unknown rhythmic or melodic concepts
• Part work: I like to have at least one song in which kids are singing harmony with each other. .. 2nd-5th grades.  SOMETIMES even in 1st grade.
• Instrument work: I like to have one song that the kids accompany themselves on with Orff Instruments.
• Piano: I have a number of students that play piano and at ALMOST every concert I have a student accompanist.  Granted, the accompaniment is sometimes very simple, but they love it and the parents love to see a student accompany the kids.
• Solos: I do like to have at least one song that has singing solos.

Let me walk you through a concert that I'm working on right now.

I mentioned that my 3rd graders will have music ONE time a week (did you hear that?  It was the sound of my heart breaking. . . ugh.  This is my class that sang a two part octavo last year on their second grade concert and did a beautiful job with it.  Do you know how much I was wanting to do with them. . . . maybe I still can but that's really going to depend on amazing lesson planning. . .which you'll read about next on Aileen's blog.)  Sorry for the tangent.  Back to 3rd grade. First I picked a theme.  Their concert is the end of January.  (Yeah, forgot to mention that the first thing I do is set concert dates.  You'll see in my download that I have a check list for you and that's my first thing!)  I was wanting to do "Songs from the Heart" in February but due to Parent/Teacher Conferences I couldn't.  So, last week of January it is and I'm keeping the theme. 

I'm not completely done, but here's what I've got so far:

Yes, I usually do 9-10 songs on a concert. But, with no speaking parts I've got to have music to fill in, lol!

So, it might be hard to read off the worksheet. Here's the songs and any skills/concepts or other notes about the songs:

1. Lazy John- I LOVE this song: 
     
   it's great because I can bring it back the following year in 4th grade for fa, it has solo singing parts AND there's "acting out" parts.  There is a boy and a girl solo.  The girl asks the boy to marry her.  Every time he has an excuse, he doesn't have socks to wear; he doesn't have a shirt to wear; he doesn't have pants to wear, etc.  Then the girl "runs out and gets it".  And every time the girl runs to get something that the boy needs to wear he put it on. I like to have the kids use my dad's old red suit.  It's super cute to see this little 3rd grader getting dressed up in an adult suit but further more, it's a great "seed" for a fa song.
2. There's a Little Wheel a Turnin'- this has an Orff accompaniment
3. Pourquoi- there's multiple verses so this is good for memory work.  I might also be able to add some visual effects to it with scarves on the different colors (maybe each class having a different color and being a different set of birds)
4. Deaf Woman's Courtship- this is too sweet and they will sing it at the beginning of the school year to review do so I won't really have to "teach" this song for the concert.  By the way, with this concert, I have all the boys on one side of the stage and the girls on the other.  So, when the old man asks the woman to marry her all the boys (on stage left) get down on one knee.  Visually  it's very cute.
5. There's a Hole in the Bucket- this will be a review song because we sang it for fun at the end of this year.
6. Shoo My Love- I have an octavo for this so we'll do part work.
7. Mail Myself to You- this is a "novelty" song in that there's not so much purpose behind it on selection because of concept or skill but chosen because it's fun to sing.
8. Love Somebody- they'll learn this in the fall for tika-tika.  Again, it's nice to have some songs that you bring back and it saves concert prep time.
9. The Riddle Song- this will be great when we learn about so pentatonic.  It's really a beautiful, slower song and we might be able to work on a dulcimer accompaniment with it.
10. Love Me Do (maybe?)  or another song. I'd love to think of another one that will work into the curriculum either as a practice or prep song.  I know there's one out there! :)

From there, I scope out how many lessons it will take to prep for the concert and what I want to get done at each lesson for the concert but also allow time for teaching and other work.

You can download my worksheets by clicking here.  A special thanks to Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Designs for the font and frames! :)

Now, lucky you! You get to hope over to Aileen's blog for some awesome lesson planning tips!  Just click on this image:

Thank you so much to Lindsay for hosting this blog hop!  I hope you enjoy the hop!

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An Animal Themed 3rd Grade Concert

I've had a request to blog about my CMEA sessions, as well as how I organize all my manipulatives (and there are a lot).  I assure you those are coming, however, I was at home with two sick kids yesterday and today (however, today they're better and I'm feeling sick, UGH!).

So, since I have been feeling self guilt about not blogging and have been struggling with an original idea for a blog post I thought I'd talk about what's on my mind: concert planning.  My third graders have a concert in March and my 1st graders and 2nd graders each have a concert in April, in addition to two more choir & handbell concerts.  (Thank goodness I plan my 4th and 5th grades in the fall, other wise it leads to a crazy, busy spring!)

My third graders have been asking me since the beginning of the school year about when they'd start their concert music.  They CAN'T wait to start, which we did last week.  Now, I see them on a four day rotation (which is basically once a week) so that doesn't leave me much time.  However, I have  a very flexible technology teacher who is going to allow me to have her classes three days a week for four weeks.  This means that three times a week I'll have double classes.  And they'll always come with the same class so when we work on the last two songs mentioned in this post they'll be learning the same part as their partner-class.

Now, I'll admit that I usually do one or two "novelty" songs per concert.  Songs that they kids adore and are songs that they've heard or are excited about.  These are my "bait and hook."  They've been DYING to sing "Roar" and "What Does the Fox Say."  Well, knowing that I really want good literature but you also want students to feel ownership of their concert, I agreed.  (All you Kodály teachers don't bash me, please!)  We've changed the register of some of those two songs and transposed them from their original keys (although "What Does the Fox Say" wasn't too badly pitched and I love that some of those fox sounds are getting my 3rd graders into a very nice head voice).   So, after I agreed I challenged them to think of a "theme,"  something that would tie those songs into other songs and without hesitation they said "animals."

When planning concert repertoire for a grade level concert, I've already mentioned that I'll include a "novelty" piece but there are some other things that I look for:

• How can what they are learning in the classroom by supplemented and enhanced by the concert repertoire?
• How can instruments be added?
• Is there a chance for soloists?
• How is part work incorporated?
• How's the variety of tempos and tone from song to song?
• How will the song appeal to them and the audience?
• These are all in addition to looking at the range, age appropriateness, etc.

The rest of the concert I want to tie into concepts that we're working on in class.  Well, we all know there are a gazillion animals songs to choose from.  So, here's what we're going to sing:

• "Who Killed Cock Robin" (perfect for low la in third grade)
• "Frog Went A-Courtin'" (nice ti-tika and tika-ti's in there), and we'll have some solo singing on the verses. (this is two fold: it gives an opportunity for soloists and cuts down on the amount of lyrics students have to memorize)
• "Crawdad Song" in which we're going to use fish paddles, similar to these to perform the rhythmic pattern "ti-ti tika-tika ti-ti ta" at the end of each phrase.  The ball is cut off they'll use chop sticks on the back to make the fish look like their "jumping" when they play them (this idea is stolen from my good friend, Loretta!)
• "Why Doesn't My Goose", we'll sing it with a bordon on Orff Instruments and as a round.
• "The Fox Went Out On a Chilly Night", and a student will accompany on piano.  I do have a lot of piano players so I try to have at least one try to accompany one song per concert.  We simplify the piano part and it's a lot of fun for them to have that chance to show what they've been learning in their private lessons.

There are two more songs that I really want to challenge them with. Next year they'll be able to join the before school choir and this is a really musically strong class so we're going to do two choral octaves.  

The first is "The Tale of Two Toads":

I first learned this when the West Salem's Honor Choir did it when I was teaching in Oregon.  It's super fun, provides opportunity for tone-color and mood and is very accessible for them.  If you don't know it, it's about two toads who get stuck in a bowl of cream.  One was a pessimist and one was an optimist.  The pessimist gives up, while the optimist swims around and around, turning the cream into butter and hops right out of the bowl.

The other I wasn't sure what I was getting when I ordered it.  I LOVE the "Tailor and the Mouse" so I was excited when I found this at JW Pepper:

It's very accessible to them.  It doesn't go through all the verses but the parts are counter parts so they'll be easy to put together.  And the kids are so excited to be reading from a choral score!

I'd love to know what are some of your ideas around grade level concert planning!  Please share in the comments! :)

Have a GREAT Friday tomorrow!

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School Recital

Last year I opened a new school in our district.  It was a BUSY year.  And I was able to get a 4/5 choir, two tone-chime choirs (one for 4th grade & one for 5th grade) and a drum ensemble going that met before or after school started.  These groups performed three concerts.  Additionally, each grade level had a concert and I volunteered teaching music to the preschool classes.  So, I slept well, needless to say, with everything that went on.

A few people last year asked about a talent show.  I'm one of those teachers that doesn't enjoy "doing" a talent show.  I hate deeming students as "talented" enough but I also don't enjoy letting anyone and everyone do it. . . if you do, the question often turns to "where's the talent."  And the last time that I did a talent show I ran rehearsals. . . 4 of them.  All the kids showed me their routine, the SAME way at each rehearsal.  The night of the talent show the cute little kindergarten that was dancing to "All the Single Ladies" (see why I cringe. . .) decided to slap her rear-end. . . a move that she had NEVER done in rehearsals.  It was so inappropriate and embarrassing because I had made sure the acts where "clean."

With a new school I figured I had a clean slate.  I didn't HAVE to do a talent show, I had a chance to create a new tradition.  But what?  Then this year it hit me.  What if I did a school "recital?"  Ding, ding, ding, light bulb moment!

Today was the recital and I am VERY pleased with the way it turned out.  The parents and families were very happy and the kids had an opportunity to shine.  And it was so musical.

Here's how it worked:

A couple months ago I sent out an announcement in the school newsletter that this year would be the "First Annual Red Hawk Recital."   The specifics were this: it is an event that provides an opportunity for students taking private music lessons to perform for each other.  The most important part of that sentence is "taking private music lessons."  (While I did allow one student to perform who didn't but that's because Grandma taught her how to play Für Elise, which was played with amazing technique and accuracy.)

Then three weeks ago I sent home a letter in every one's Thursday folder.  This recaped what the event was: an opportunity for students taking private lessons to perform for each other.  Then, the bottom half of the letter was a permission slip that was signed by both the parent AND the private lesson teacher stating the student's name, what piece they have prepared to play, the composer, the instrument.  The best part was I wasn't judging who was allowed to participate.  Instead, I was relying on the judgment of the private lesson teacher to pick a piece that their student had prepared to play.

The students showed up, full of nerves (like everyone one does at a recital) but SO excited to share what they had prepared.  We had mostly piano players, but a few violin players, some vocalists, a couple guitar players and a bass player.  It was so much fun to hear them.  And then afterwards we had a reception.

The best part is it was such easy planning on my part AND the students were SO successful!!!  Just an idea I thought I'd share!

Have a GREAT Saturday everyone!

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