What a fabulous (and noisy) program. We all went to the inaugural show yesterday in Red Bank. The NJ Symphony Orchestra did a matinee performance for kids before their grownup show last night. This is the first event at Count Basie, but I think I’ve seen this elsewhere around the state. Maybe NJPAC?
So I actually made this playlist over the summer, but now that fall is emerging (I wore a turtleneck today!!) I’m starting to work on a new one. But I’m still listening to this one constantly, so I wanted to post it.
This week was my school’s winter concert. The first graders (blurry to protect them) performed a song called “The 12 Days in the Rainforest” that one of the first grade teachers wrote. It was awesome, they sang about all the animals in the rainforest. So fun, and they did a fabulous job. Our computer teacher put together a great animated presentation to go along with the song, it was wonderful. The 4th and 5th grade chorus also performed some carols and other songs to get the holiday spirit going.
I have always wanted to be a secret agent. As a kid, I used to write lengthy stories about being a kid spy (because who would suspect a kid?) long before movies like Spy Kids came into the picture. If Spongebob has any competition as my favorite show of all time, it’s with Alias. The outfits, the intrigue…the music.
Oh my goodness, I can’t believe how much fun I had in April talking about hip hop for National Poetry Month.
I spent the month using this book to talk to some of my 4th and 5th graders about rhythm, beats, and structure. We looked at poems side-by-side with some lyrics, and we talked about how both poems and hip hop lyrics have a structure. We talked about how the number of syllables in each line needs to make sense with the whole verse or the way it flows will be broken…that sort of thing. We talked about how hard it can be to write a good poem or a good song, and I read them Nikki Giovanni’s introduction in the book. The intro talks about the roots of hip hop, compares it to opera, warns kids not to be fooled by all the embarassing rap songs out there. True hip hop is like poetry. And on and on and on.