Our Earth, Our Home

We love celebrating Earth Day, and we hope that you and your students do, too. Earth Day, which is observed on April 22, aims to inspire awareness of and appreciation for earth's environment. With that in mind, the song "Our Earth, Our Home" has two very distinctive themes. The first theme has a haunting melody and accompaniment to create awareness of earth's many qualities and to inspire conservation. The second theme has a more uplifting melody and accompaniment which is meant to help us celebrate and appreciate the small planet that so many of us call "home."

From a musical standpoint, be sure to point out the minor sound of the first theme versus the major sound of the second theme. There are also some cool-sounding guitar harmonics and tremolo strings that would be fun to listen for. From a performance standpoint, if you have the capability, it would be neat to show images on a screen depicting the various items mentioned in the first theme, and have the images change as each word is sung. For the second section, you could show pictures of the planet earth as seen from space.

As always, when it comes to celebrating Earth Day or just discussing environmental issues, we recommend that you let classroom teachers know you have resources to help bring the topic across the curriculum. (If you're interested in knowing more about our large selection of music to support this subject, please visit our online Index at MusicK8.com where you can also listen to excerpts of our materials.)