Welcome to 2025!
I wanted to give you a little review of how changing my concerts and not doing a Christmas/Winter concert went.
As you may remember from last month’s newsletter, I decided to do 3 smaller concerts throughout the year to showcase 2 grades at each instead of doing a winter concert. So far so good. Only a few parents complained (that I know of). Thanks to another couple of teachers who organized a family Christmas evening with crafts and activities I don’t think the families felt like they were missing the spirit of the season.
My grade 5 and 6 concert was in November and that went well too. Now I’m preparing for grade 1, 2 and kindergarten concert that will be in February. It is nice to be able to choose songs from any theme. I’ve chosen some classics like “Skinnamarink” and "If You're Happy and You Know It". I’ve created French verses for each song, too. I also have some new songs from music K-8: “Bright Happy Days” and “Forever Learning”. These will also feature some French verses.
My grade 3 and 4 concert will be at the end of March. The trick as I move forward is to not always be in concert planning mode. Wish me luck.
As I’m working on the concert with the div 1s I will be doing other units with the upper grades as we finish the term and get report cards finished.
· Grade 3s are going to be starting to prepare for the Leduc music festival (I take the grade 3’s every year). This year I chose 3 songs from the music that was presented at the Long and McQuade choir reading session in August. It was my first time going this year and I’m so glad I did. Getting to hear the music with its harmonies and singing along was great fun and insightful.
· Grade 4s are going to review the instruments and families with the book “The composer is dead” by Lemony Snicket.
· Grade 5s are going to start an intensive unit learning the recorders- We will be doing a condensed version of my normal recorder karate as we bought a class set of alto recorders this year and I’m excited to try some duets following the recorder karate.
· Grade 6s are doing “The History of Rock and Roll”. This is a unit that came with my classroom resources when I started many moons ago. Over the years I’ve changed and added activities to the original information to include composing in 12 bar blues, dancing and creating a “family tree” of sorts to show how Rock and Roll came to be.
If any of these units sound intriguing or if you have any questions feel free to email me at amanda.clark@fineartsata.ca. Look forward to hearing from you! I’m always happy to talk resources and concert planning among all the other aspects of teaching music. Don’t forget to check out our virtual events coming up in January and February!
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