Needing some spring concert ideas

[nafmeadmin]

Elementary music is not my forte, and I need some ideas for this year’s spring concert. I teach 3-6 music. Last year I did some STOMP style percussion with the 5th and 6th graders, and had all the kids do songs from the musicals we studied. I’m not sure what to do with them this year. Does anyone have some good ideas they’re willing to share? Thank you in advance!

[nafmeadmin]

You are doing a great job, Blake, focusing last year on what you have done in your classroom. All my programs are taken from the learning that occurs daily (or weekly) in the music curriculum and lessons. For example, if you did a jazz/blues unit with your students, lay down the 12 bar blues on Orff instruments and in the middle of a blues song feature some of your students improvising on Orff instruments or a few brave singers who have been working with scat. You might perform selections that take the audience through the progression of jazz to rock with students providing short spoken program notes that they researched. Last year my 4/5 students chose the theme based on social justice, with the death of Pete Seeger. We moved from Civil Rights songs to South African Freedom Songs to American Folk Songs (If I Had a Hammer) and they even created their own rap about social justice and helping others in the the world, using Garage Band to lay down their accompanying track. If you look at the new National Core Standards in Music, the performance standard leads you through having children make programming choices and preparing them. This is also a great opportunity to feature a few short group compositions or have the whole group perform a couple of songs written by your middle school students in music class. I hope this helps!
Christine Hayes, K-5 General Music, Whitewater WI, NAfME Council for General Music Past-Chair

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