If you're an elementary music teacher like me, you've no doubt had the privilege (and STRESS!) of putting together yearly music performances for your students. I'm currently working on my 4th program.
Before I go any further, I want to give a little bit of background first. I teach in the public school I graduated from. In fact, my music room was my 4th grade classroom! I love to see the look on my student's faces when I point to the spot in the room where my old desk used to sit. They're always amazed that Mrs. Salinas went to their school, too! Anyway, it's been a tradition at our small school since sometime in the 1960's or 70's to have a "Spring Festival". The classroom teachers used to be in charge of it and it was a BIG to-do! Handmade costumes and props all centered around a grand theme with the whole elementary school participating. The music teacher before me was told when he arrived in the early 90's to not even think about touching the annual Spring Festival or he'd have an angry community on his hands, so he dutifully carried on the tradition for 20 more years. All the while our school grew and grew until all of our elementary students could no longer fit on the stage at the same time. So, by the time he passed the torch to me last year, we no longer had just one program, but two - a Winter and a Spring. And personally, I like that better than having one extra large program! So, I'm in the process of planning our Spring Program now, but it seems like we just finished our Winter Program! I guess that's the life of an elementary music teacher......finish up one program, start on the next one.
I worry and stress over every program I've done so far and my biggest frustration is finding quality program material!! My favorite resource by far is Music K8 (http://www.musick8.com/). I've decided the spring program will be titled "Let's Make Some Music!" and I've found 4 songs I really like from the Music K8 website that fit this theme, plus two songs from our Silver Burdett curriculum for a total of 6 songs. I'm working with PreK-2nd grade this time (3rd-5th did the Winter which was AWESOME! I'll have to post about it later). Now the hardest part of all for me - writing the dialogue!!
Wish me luck! I'll post an update when we've wrapped it all up.
