Well the extended school year is finally over. We had to have 180 days of school this year so all those snow days and flood days had to be made up. We went to school till June 24th this year. However, we still had fun in the music room.
I have never in my 11 years of teaching got to teach WV day but this year I did. I made a powerpoint presentation that included all of the state information (such as state bird, animal, colors, etc). We went over that and then discussed the state songs. We learned to sing WV Hills and Country Roads. We added both of these songs to our spring sing performance. Every one sang Country Roads. My wonderful 4th grade students sang the verses of WV Hills and the K-3 students sang the chorus/refrain. It was a wonderful performance. We only did this at Omar though. I didn't get it done at Holden though.
The rest of our spring performances included stuff we've done in music class. My 3rd graders rocked the School House Rock Jr. songs from their books. I had a blast learning them with the students. This is the first year I have done these songs and I couldn't have chose a better group to start with. They totally rocked! This performance showed that we don't just learn about music, we learn about science(Inter planet Janet), language arts (interjections), and math (3 is a magic number). We didn't have time to get The Preamble learned but we did sing "We the People" because we learned it in March for the Concert for Music in our School's Month. Both songs are about the US Constitution. I have a wonderful lesson that I created for Constitution Day, and this song will be added to it.
We also had our Leadership Days at both schools, which I am a big part of. I love the Leader in Me program. It has changed me not only at work but at home. I also love what it does at school. All of my programs and my classroom are student-led. It may not be perfect but they are learning and nobody is perfect but God. Omar had their 2nd leadership day this year and Holden had their first annual leadership day. Both were a tremendous success. One 2nd grade student said "I can't wait till next years Leadership Day"(won't say what school). I lead the students in our 7 habit songs for each special day. Can't wait to learn some new 7 habit songs next year!!
The big event at the end of the year is my classroom being moved to the other hallway. I will be working this summer on getting the new room organized. I'm so excited for a new beginning, b/c the new room is bigger and I will get a smart board. Can't wait to put that to use in my music centers and also for classroom activities. Got a few summer projects I'd like to complete (like making steady beat swords) and also purchasing some things from TPT; however, most of my summer will be spent with my baby girl and my family.
Happy summer to all! Stay tuned for pictures of the new classroom when it's all done.
