New School Year – Day 16

“Let’s go fly a kite, up to the highest height,
Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up to the atmosphere, up where the air is clear,
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!”

Today I got to teach 3 music classes. I warmed them up with some 5-key scales
and deep breathing, and even told them about posture, their diaphragm and
staccato. The little ones were really impressed at how their bellies felt when they
sang “Ha! Ha! Ha!”  Then we sang! I love the above song, so the 2nd graders sang it about
8 times (it’s pretty short) while I made flamboyant hand motions and even danced
a little around the room. I should have been a music teacher! (Yes, I know, not
all days are fun.)

The 4th graders sang a parody of “Stayin’ Alive” for Halloween, called “Scarin’ Alive”
and I threw in a few old disco moves. 🙂

I couldn’t find the CD for the first graders’ songs at first and they asked to sing the
7 Habits Song, which I COULD find and enjoy, so we sang that about 3 or 4 times.
I heard them singing it in their classroom later on. It’s to the tune of “Rolling in the Deep”.
Just imagine about 27 6-year-olds singing along at mezzo piano on the stanzas and
then hitting fortissimo on the chorus every time. Nearly blasted me out of the room. 🙂

The teacher has more than 30 stuffed animals in the room, so I let them each choose
one and then we sang “Old McDonald” while making the appropriate animal sound for
some of the animals (dragon was very creative – kind of a fire-breathing sound.)
Yes, I had fun today, I helped kids learn, and I got paid for it. 🙂