3rd Grade Concert: "Some Music For You...and Character Too!"

I found a book of Character Counts songs a while ago, and once the guidance counselor found out we thought it would be neat to have them sing at the spring Character Counts Assembly.  I didn't want to teach them two separate performances, so we used the Character Counts theme for our spring concert as well!


The neatest moment was when they performed "Hazrat Bibi Mariam", a song in Arabic about peace.  We came up with some really great choreography and it turned out to be extremely powerful and moving.  I love love LOVE when things become both educational AND powerful. 

Character Counts! - "Inside Out"

 Trustworthiness - "Little Tommy Tinker"

 Respect - "Great Big House"

 Fairness - "Tikki Tikki Tembo"

 

Caring - "Tideo"

 Citizenship - "Hazrat Bibi Mariam"

Responsibility - "You Can Count on Me"

2nd Grade Concert: "Move Over, Rover!"

The second grade concert was a musical re-telling of the story "Move Over, Rover!" by Karen Beaumont.  This was such a FUN concert, and they did a GREAT job!  The students narrated the whole book, and then we sang one song that corresponded with every page.  I was really proud of them. :)

1. "Bow, Wow, Wow"

2. "Body Percussion Thunderstorm"

3. "Poor Old Rover"

4. "Kitty Cat, I Hear a Mouse"

5. "Raccoon and Possum"

6. "Let Us Chase the Squirrel"

7. "Here Comes a Bluebird"

8. "Black Snake"

9. "Mouse, Mousie"

10. "Great Big House"

11. "Skunk in the Barnyard"

12. "Are You Sleeping? (Frere Jacques)"

And here are some picture highlights. :) 

1st Grade Concert: "Brown Bear, Brown Bear"

I took a music friend's idea of basing a concert off of Bill Martin Jr.'s book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and changed some stuff around to make it work for my first graders.  We played a music game (which we play a LOT of in first grade!) for each animal, and the last kid to get "picked" in every game came up and sang a solo to introduce the next animal/game.   It was pretty cute. :)

BROWN BEAR - "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear"

SILVER HORSE - "Here Comes Mrs. Macaroni"

LITTLE GREEN FROG - "Galump Went the Little Green Frog"

BINGO - "BINGO" :)

BUNNY RABBIT - "Here Comes a Bunny Rabbit"

*Notice the bunny rabbit in the soloist's hand...

MONKEY - "5 Little Monkeys"

*This one was HILARIOUS!  In this picture there are 2 monkeys left, "teasing" the crocodile on the floor.  I wish I could post the video (the whole concert is together so it's too long!), it was SO funny!

KITTY CAT - "Naughty Kitty Cat"

DOGGIE - "Doggie, Doggie"

BLACK FLY - "Old Black Fly"

BLUEBIRD - "Bluebird, Bluebird"

BUMBLEBEE - "Busy Buzzy Bee"

APPLE TREE - "Apple Tree, Apple Tree"

At the end a soloist sang "Students, Students what do you see?" and "Parents, Parents what do you see?", then "Teacher, Teacher, what do you see?" and I sang back the animals and they took their bows.  

Great job first graders!

Kindergarten Concert: "The Missing Tarts"

Since I'm throwing myself back into the blogging world with gusto, I thought I'd offer a play-by-play of our recent concerts. :)  Here are some highlights from the Kindergarten Concert! 

"The Missing Tarts: a Mother Goose Mystery!"

The Queen of Hearts has lost her tarts....which Mother Goose character can help her find them?!?!

The Queen of Hearts

 Hickory Dickory Dock

Cobbler, Cobbler

 Hey, Diddle Diddle

 Wee Willie Winkie

 

Little Bo Peep/Baa Baa Black Sheep

Bow, Wow, Wow

Humpty Dumpty
*I just thought he was cute holding the door - could almost be a humpty dumpty, ready to fall off. :)

Jack Be Nimble

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star/Star Light, Star Bright

Itsy Bitsy Spider

The Queen of Hearts

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And some other fun moments!

Although there were some VERY naughty boys on stage (and I had to stop the program once to remind them how their "concert hands" and "concert eyeballs" and "concert lips" should act!), they were AWESOME!  They narrated, sang, and acted out their own program... and for kindergarten, that's pretty impressive!

Survive Chaos: Check!

 This last month has been totally ridiculous and overwhelming. :)  After tomorrow, I'll have had six kiddie music performances in the last week and a half.  We've had things all weekend for the last five weeks, and had (on average) only one night/week without something scheduled for the last month.  I wish I had taken pictures of our house....or my car...or my closet....or especially our kitchen, but I don't think I would have had the courage to post them!  You'll have to just take my word for it - our lives were CHAOS!

Even though we have a mini performance tomorrow, I really would say that this last Tuesday was the end of the "crazy".  Last night I recovered, and this morning I was feeling pretty carefree! Until... 

At lunch my principal reminded me that I needed to give back the high school key I had borrowed for our concerts.  Yeah, sure, no problem!  Oh wait - I had NO IDEA where the key was!  Now, I'm pretty notorious for misplacing things and have learned to just let it go and find things when I find them.  However, losing a key to the high school during the first year of a new job is NOT the way to win people over.  Enter: Panic Attack.

I looked all over my elementary room during my free minutes for the rest of the day - nothing.  I broke my sugar fast at a gas station on the way home and only came up with a stomach ache.  I looked under every car seat and in every nook and cranny of my purse - nothing.  More panic.

Chris was awesome (as always!) and agreed to go to my elementary room to help me look for it.  And thankfully, after 20 minutes of searching every nook and cranny, we found the key at the bottom of a bin full of egg shakers.  EGG SHAKERS!  Sometimes I wish I could trade my mind in for a better model!  One that doesn't put keys in the egg shaker bin.  

And at that moment, I became officially stress free. :)  I am now re-entering the world of the living, the world of blogging and goal-getting and working-out and being social.  

Anyone wanna hang?!?!

Peace ya'all!

Birthday Bash!

I turned 27 on March 31st...and it was a great day. :)  I don't usually have real huge expectations for birthdays, but I definitely felt loved.  Chris woke me up with singing...and (in true Chris style!) a banana with a candle in it.  I actually had strep on my birthday, and the night before had said that nothing sounded good except a banana.  SO - although it sounds pretty ridiculous to hand your wife a banana with a candle in it on her birthday, he was actually being very sweet!

I had to go downstairs for the next part, and this is what I saw!

He had decorated the night before...awesome job Farley!

SO fun!  He really outdid himself this time. :)

And...a TOTAL surprise, he got me a kindle!  I can hardly put it down, I'm so excited! 

The rest of my actual birthday was really fun.  Although I was dealing with strep I went to school (and didn't breathe on anyone!), and got lots of birthday wishes from adorable kids. :)  I had a doctor appt. after school, choir practice after that, and then went to Valentino's with Chris to have a date and play around with the Kindle.  It was a great day!

THEN - Birthday celebration #2 with the Stellmaker Family.  First, I adore my family.  I felt so loved, and feel especially glad that everyone is home right now.  Matthew's living at home until June, Amy and Matt were there, Papa's at mom and dad's right now, and Cindy (a family friend and our Iowa-aunt) got to come.  It was GREAT!

I asked for money to go toward a bike, and in true Stellmaker-style they all got creative in how they gave it to me.  This was the most creative. :)

I asked for money to buy a bike, but my family doesn't do things boring - so mom took me on a scavenger hunt.  What was at the end?  A money tree!

Love this family so much. :)

The only unnecessary part of the evening was the April Fool's Day prank played on the birthday girl.  :)  I haven't eaten sugar since middle of February, and could finally eat some on April 1st.  I've decided to continue not eating white sugar except at celebrations...and this was a CELEBRATION!  So when the oreos came around I was pretty excited - until I bit into two oreo cookies filled with TOOTH PASTE!!!!  Thanks a lot brother! 

Thanks for such a great birthday everyone...I feel very loved. :)