Elementary Music/Music Technology Blog

It is that time of year again when my students are preparing for their annual Holiday Concert. I thought that I would share the repertoire that my students will be performing:

1. Everybody’s Goin’ on a Sleigh Ride: Grades K-3 will sing this song together. This is from Music K8. My students are loving this song! It is upbeat and very easy to learn, even for my youngest singers. The song has a predominant “Elvis-like quality” to it that my students adore.
2. Joy to the World: Grades K and 1 will be singing this song together. I also have recruited older students who play the trumpets and trombone to accompany the students. One of the teachers plays french horn and likes to play when asked, which is such a joy. Therefore, the kindergartners and first graders will sing this song with a brass quartet accompaniment that I arranged using Sibelius notation software..
3. Hine Ma Tov: Grades two and three will be singing this great song by Alan Naplan. It is a very spirited song in Hebrew with an optional English verse.
4. Carol of the Angels: This Jill Gallina song is a beautiful partner song of “Angels We Have Heard on High” and an original song composed by Jill. The two songs blend so wonderfully together that it has become one of my favorite songs. In addition, the Chinese teacher at my school wanted to have the students sing a verse in Chinese, so she translated it and is currently teaching the Chinese lyrics in her class. The second and third graders will be singing this song.
5. The First Noel: This traditional carol will be sung by my first graders and kindergartners and will be accompanied by one of my third grade classes on the Orff instruments.
6. Hanukkah O Hanukkah: Another nice selection from Music K8. The accompaniment includes strings and clarinets. Since I have students in grades 6 through 8 who can play the accompaniment, I will not use the CD and feature the students instead.The second and third graders will be singing this song together.
7. Blitzen’s Boogie: Our final selection for grades K-3 will be this fun and upbeat song from Music K8. This song has an excellent accompaniment track and you can choreograph the song in a variety of ways. I am currently searching the Music K8 site and youtube to view schools who have performed this piece on their concerts so that I can create some riser choreography to this song.

What are your students performing at their Holiday/Winter Concert?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 9:56 pm and is filed under Reflections. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.