Drums & Bones

My 3rd grade students' musical program was on February 13. Last year, I had the 3rd graders do a program all about Walt Disney and his company, and the students sang Disney songs. It worked out so well, that I decided to do another Disney Display this year. But I never want to do identical shows, so I changed it up a little bit.

 

This year, instead of talking about Walt Disney and his company, I had the students all write down their favorite Disney movies and why they like it. 20 of the students read their narratives in between the 7 Disney movie songs that we sang. I also changed a couple of the songs in this year's program.

 

For each song, there are special parts that students audition for. Each student gets one special part to play, and in our program, there were: action dancers for the Little Mermaid song, drummers for the Lion King song, soloists for the Beauty & the Beast song, bones players for the 102 Dalmations song, partner dancers for the Toy Story song, ribbon dancers for the Pocahontas song, and scarf dancers, soloists, and globe spinners for the Aladdin song. I really feel like it's important that every child has an individual part to play in every production that I do. The students feel more pride in their work this way, and it helps them develop talents in areas that they might not otherwise choose to.

 

We worked on the show for over 2 months--and what I like about the Disney music is that it's easy to learn due to all the rhyming words, catchy tunes, the fact that the kids are already familiar with it, and they like it so it's funner for them to learn, too. After learning all the songs, the audition process began.

 

Jonah and Micah both knew that they wanted to audition for instrument parts. Since there are 60 kids, and limited stage space, I only allowed 6 kids for each special part (6 ribbon dancers, 6 drummers, etc.). The audition process was tough for me selecting the top 6 in each category. There are so many talented kids! I wish that I could've had each child could do whatever part they desired, but it's simply not possible. Thankfully, both of my sons had quality auditions, and they both qualified for the parts that they wanted: Micah was a bones player for "Digga Digga Dog" and Jonah was a drummer for "Hakuna Matata". I thought that both my boys did a great job of playing their instrument with the correct rhythm. It is so wonderful for me to watch my students perform after all their hard work, and it is doubly rewarding to watch my own children perform among my students!

 

 

 

The students had a dynamite dress rehearsal, and a flawless student performance, and I was so proud of them! It was so enjoyable for me to watch them succeed after all their practicing! But, in show business, it tends to be that if you have an awesome dress rehearsal, you'll have a terrible opening night, and vice/versa: if you have a terrible dress rehearsal, you'll have an awesome opening night show.

 

(Jonah and Micah are both in the 2nd row--Jonah 3rd from the left and Micah on the far right)

Their final performance was for their parents, and it didn't turn out quite as polished and perfect as their previous performance had been for the school. During the parent show, a girl fell off the stage and face-planted the floor and had to be escorted away, a boy almost passed out during his solo and sang his phrase in one quick breath with his eyes shut, and the students talked and whispered on stage when they were supposed to be quiet. But overall, it was still a good show and the students did a great job remembering their parts and performing them the best they could!