National Conference and Holiday Program

The most awesome conference- that's all I have to say! Typically when I've been to conference I attend a few "bummer" sessions- I get into the room and it becomes pretty obvious that the "clinician" isn't for me. This time around I went to only ONE bummer session and was able to leave pretty quickly. I LOVED pretty much everyone I saw and had an awesome time drumming, playing, singing, and dancing through Pittsburgh! Amazing conference!
Now, back to my approaching concert in a couple weeks- our concert is entitled, "Songs of Night, Songs of Light". I really wanted to sing "Just One Candle" from Music K8 again this year- it's been many years since my students sang this one and they always enjoy it. We are also performing "Stars" from Lynn Kleiner and a song I wrote called "Inky Night" as well as an Elizabeth Gilpatrick Orff arrangement of "Starlight, Star Bright" which my fourth graders LOVE- a little jazzy with an extremely accessible instrument part. We are playing "Kalendara" from Jon Madin as an introit and have several other songs about night, stars, and bells (texture of "light" and shimmery things). We are using the Boyz 2 Men version of "Silent Night" with white gloves and white snowflakes and are performing a movement piece complete with black light! My third graders are performing "All Through the Night" on recorder and are also performing "Trepak" from the Nutcracker as a movement piece with glowsticks. I really wanted to do a flashlight piece, but I was a little concerned about using these as I have a couple students who seizure disorders that can be triggered by flashing lights so I decided not to that in performance. I'm so excited about this performance- it'll be fun! Oh- and Music K8 had a new song that we're singing, too- soooo cute- We Will Jingle- a take off of "We Will Rock You"- kids LOVE it!