Submitted by Kerryn Oliver, Iowa
Idea posted July 18, 2003
My K-3's sang this wonderful piece as the closer at our concert. I created a PowerPoint for the piece that was incredibly moving. (I'm not trying to brag, but it really was good!) Each child was asked to bring in a picture of his or her hero. I put the photographs and drawings into a PowerPoint, and with each photo or drawing, I added the child's school picture. It was a real learning experience for me, to see who the kids see as their heroes (We had everything from Spiderman to Jesus.), and it was very powerful for the audience. We had the full gamut, from laughter (at Spiderman) to tears (Two children had their grandpas as their heroes; both grandpas had passed away recently. One child's dad shipped out for Iraq the day before the concert, and the picture that child submitted was of him with his dad.).
If you have a small school or a small number of kids doing a concert, a PowerPoint is a wonderful addition to the program. I used 34 slides, each one lasting 4-5 seconds. The aftermath has been overwhelming! I've had people stopping me on the street, in the halls at school, calling my home, even stopping my husband to tell him what a great concert it was. And, for all of you out there who are "afraid" of technology... this was my first experiment with PowerPoint! Don't be afraid to try it!
The rest of the program was patriotic music: a lot of Music K-8 songs and traditional songs.
Kindergarten: "Yankee Doodle," "50 Stars," "When the Flag Goes By"Kindergarten and 1st: "America"
1st: "My Flag" (From Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 5. Also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.), "I Love My Country" - with sign language (from Music K-8, Vol. 13, No. 1)
2nd: "This Land Is Your Land," "God Bless The U.S.A."
3rd: "Heart of America" - with choreography (From Music K-8, Vol. 11, No. 3. Also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.), "Song of Peace" - with sign language and four soloists (From Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 2. Also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.)
2nd and 3rd: "Military Medley" (I used a medley of the three songs starting with the Army ("The Caisson Song"), then the Marines (The Marines Hymn/"From The Halls of Montezuma"), ending with the Navy theme ("Anchors Aweigh"). I arranged it myself using just the basic chord outlines of the song with a brief transition between each.)
1st, 2nd, and 3rd: "You Are Our Heroes" (From Music K-8, Vol. 12, No. 4. Also available as a Singles Reproducible Kit.)
We also had narrators. The poem "I Am The Flag" was read, and between the "Military Medley" and "You Are Our Heroes," we asked for veterans, police officers, firefighters, and medical personnel to stand and be recognized. Of course, at that precise instant, my junior high helper hit the light switch so the gym would go dark for the PowerPoint... it was the humorous point of the evening.
We took a ten-minute intermission and went on with the 4th-6th grade portion of the concert. By the way, this set-up worked really well!