Celebrate With Joy!

This lively and cheerful tune can be used anytime for any celebration! It is particularly useful during November and December as many different celebrations might be taking place at approximately the same time. This song does not specifically mention any one of them, but rather presents the unique opportunity of mentioning all (or some) of them. You can leave it as subtle as it is, or you can focus on any or all celebrations you wish. For example, have your classroom or performance area decorated for various seasonal celebrations: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, and so on. (Birthdays count, too!) Use the tune as a departure for discussion of celebrations in general. What do your students celebrate with their own families? How do they celebrate?

The song is unison the first time through. The rhythms may be a little tricky, but listening to our singers on the CD will help yours learn it quickly. The second time through (the D.S.), there is an optional second part which adds a little spice to the sound. As before, if your students aren't comfortable with part singing yet, consider asking older students to join in and help with this. (To assist you in teaching this part, we have isolated it and put it on our web site at MusicK8.com as a free MP3 that you or your students can download and practice along with.)

There are also spoken solos on the D.S. which you may wish to incorporate. Pick different students to speak each word. The words should occur approximately on beat 4 of their respective measures. Incidentally, you will notice that the words spoken are also supposed to be sung with an accent each time. Point this out to your singers.

In a performance setting, if you want to make this a more elaborate piece, consider adding costumes or some type of pageantry. For example, have a parade or entrance of students dressed in celebratory outfits specific to certain holidays. One student dressed like Santa Claus. Another like a turkey. Another like Father Time (New Year's). Or angels or shepherds or decorated trees. You get the idea. Have students (and your art teacher) talk about the celebrations you want to feature and what types of costumes could be incorporated.