Friday, June 02, 2006

Music for everyone

This morning I used my music education degree in an actual school setting - something I haven't done in almost 4 years.

My current small group consists of quite a few teachers. One girl teaches Kindergarten (and I respect her greatly!) - and she mentioned in passing that at her school they don't have any "specials" - meaning, her kids don't get to have music class. So I offered to come in some Friday and have music class. I can't IMAGINE elementary school without music. Seriously!

Well today was the day. And I was a little rusty (and it's been a long time since I've been called by my teacher name!). However, it was quite fun - for both me AND the kids! I played my horn for them, we played a high/low game, sang some songs (Alice the Camel, for example), and then listened to "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

If you're not familiar with "In the Hall of the Mountain King" it's a classical piece by Edvard Grieg (one of the only well-known Scandinavian composers!) - and it starts soft, but then builds to a loud, fast ending. It's very spooky. One of my most vivid kindergarten memories is listening to this piece in music class. Our teacher let us crawl/creep around the room and the beginning and then run around like banshees at the end. (She also let us do something similar to "Flight of the Bumblebee." We loved to run around like bees.) While not to that extreme (we had to creep/walk/run in place because of space), we definitely moved to it today. It was WAY fun. We also listened to it with our eyes closed to imagine what was happening. One kid said that Mike Myers was chasing him.

And it made me happy to share the music love with some kindergarteners. And it made me remember how as children, we're much more inclined to sing, smile at a silly song, and move around to music.

Anyone else have random music class memories from elementary school? I realize I may have liked music a lot more than would be considered "normal." :)

3 comments:

Kara said...

you lucky duck...

that sounds like it was extremely fun!

my only elementary school music class memories are

1. having to clap the beat of notes... our teacher was like a drill sargent!
2. speaking of the teacher, his name was Mr. Music
3. this song about hawaii and rainbows that had motions... and wearing a fun pink sweater dress (remember those) for the concert that we sang the song at


Though in retrospect,those are all 1-3 grade memories... I learned German songs in 4th grade (different school in Wisconsin)
and in Kindergarten we went to Peoria Christian and what I remember from there is the song from Little House on the Praire (ol' Dan Tucker) and this one song that was about the 10 commandments

number one, we've just begun, God should be first in your life
number two's the idol rule; those graven images aren't nice
number three God's name should be never spoken in vain

and that's where I always have to stop because I don't remember what four is :)

(i'm not horrible though, I remember 5, 6, 7, & 8... 9 and 10 are a blur, however) :)

Anonymous said...

Number one we’ve just begun, God should be first in your life.
Number two’s the idol rule; those graven images aren’t nice.
Number three God’s name should be never spoken in jest.
Number four the Sabbath’s for our worship and for rest.
Number five we all should strive to honor father and mother.
Number six don’t get your kicks from killing one another.
Number seven life is heaven when you’re true to your mate.
Number eight don’t steal and break this rule for anyone’s sake.
Number nine don’t be the kind who goes around telling lies.
Number ten don’t covet when you see your neighbor’s house or wife.
That’s the list and God insists we stay away from these sins.
That is why we memorize commandments one through ten.

Unknown said...

I learned this song in Children's choir when I was younger and I haven't ever forgotten it :)