Submitted by Stephanie Menefee, Tacoma, Washington
Idea posted August 26, 2003
Question: I was wondering what the opinion is on educational programs vs. entertaining programs. The new position I am taking is at a K-5 school, and the tradition has been that each grade level presents a program each year. This being my first year, the idea of six programs is terrifying. I would like to pick material that would still incorporate music objectives and national standards into the learning, rather than just preparing for the program for a month or two. I had thought of using different songs from the curriculum and songs from Music K-8 as everyday songs and then finding a common theme throughout to use as a concert. I was just wondering what other teachers have done in the past and if anyone had any advice for me.
Answer: My biggest piece of advice is: Never have more than one program planned in any 30-day/4-week period. You will drive yourself nuts! My recommendation is that you break things up, doing three programs in the fall (3rd, 4th, 5th maybe?) and three in the spring. I suggested having the older kids perform in the fall because it will be easier to teach them all of the songs, etc. for the program. It's OK to work on program stuff for more than one class/level/program at a time, but for sanity's sake, only focus on production for one at a time.
Have you considered combining grade levels for a program? At the school where I did my student teaching, we had four classes of each grade level and did a program with K/1, one with 2/3, and one with 4/5. That worked out really well, plus it put more children on the risers and more people in the audience.
I have tried to work themes into my programs, picking songs from the music text as well as from Music K-8, and so far it has worked quite well. I also write my own scripts. Nothing major, four-line stanzas which usually rhyme and tie two songs together.