HOORAY!

Yes, that's right. The song i'm singing this week is, HIP HIP HOORAY! OUR PROGRAM WENT WELL TODAY! I was so glad when it was over-i wanted to do this:

But, as it turns out, I was so tired i could hardly eat lunch before collapsing on my bed. But what a great feeling! 9 months of teaching songs, trying to ward off boredom and complacency by being creative and finally it all paid off. Yippee!

Was it perfect? No way. Are there things i'd do differently next time? Absolutely. Was the spirit present? Without a doubt!

I love being chorister. I love the things i am learning, i love trying new ideas and i love the testimonies of the children as they sing. Watching those sweet faces singing the songs with all their heart just endeared them to me even more.

Good luck with all of your final preparations! Remember, your primary will be fantastic just because of who they are and the spirit they bring.

Will your teacher STAND for you?

My presidency gave me an idea that they've seen done in the past. I thought it was great and I'm going to use it this sunday when we have our entire primary combined to practice for the program that is the following week.

As we sing each song, the teachers should stand according to how well their class is singing. If they're loud-the teacher stands up tall; singing just ok-the teacher will 1/2 stand; not singing too great-teacher crouches even lower. The teacher should stand if even one child is singing but stand taller the more of their kids that sing. He/she can play with it and go up and down during the song if their class doesn't sing as loud in some parts. The kids will have a blast watching their teacher go up and down and hopefully they'll aim to have them stand tall! Our teachers will get quite a workout-you may want to prep them before hand. :)

Cantare Con Me...stile italiano!

Translation: Sing with me...Italian style!

Write the following words on the board: (the italics indicate how to lead)

Forte-very large movements

Piano-very small movements

Allegro-very fast

Largo-very slow

Staccato-sharp, robot like leading

Legato-very wavy and flowy leading

A capella-cut off motion to pianist, then lead normally.

Choose a different way to lead for each song (or several diff. ways for one song). See if the primary children can guess how they are supposed to sing simply by watching you lead. Using multiple dynamics for one song takes lots of practice and good eye contact and that's just what we want, right?? :)

Be your own judge!

Our program is in about 5 weeks. I decided today that i am going to record them singing all the program songs and then I'll play it back and have them rate themselves on how they did and what we need to work on. Here's some rating categories i'm thinking of: volume, enunciation, in tune, song familiarity, and blending. I'll chart this on a posterboard, and after they rate themselves, we'll spend the following couple weeks perfecting the songs according to their own ratings. I'm hoping that having them hear themselves sing will help them know if each song is program ready or not and will empower them with more of a desire to perfect the songs. I'll let you know how it goes....