Holiday Fun

Christmas may be over, but if you're still in the mood for holiday music, this is the place to be! In the last couple weeks before the holiday musical, if students had extra time in class after practicing their songs for that, they'd get to choose from a variety of short reward videos. Lots of students really gravitated towards Pentatonix, Piano Guys, and A Claymation Christmas Celebration (yes, the one from the '80s!). Here are some of their favorites... (Oh, and if you're in the mood for last year's Frozen earworm, remember to check out the "Let It Go" blog post, which has several covers and parodies of the catchy song.)

From A Claymation Christmas Celebration

Carol of the Bells - "Dumb Bell"

"Angels We Have Heard On High"

"We Three Kings"

From The Piano Guys

"Angels We Have Heard On High"

"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"

From Straight No Chaser

"12 Days of Christmas" (I told the students this was more like Christmas carols in a blender, plus some Toto)

From Pentatonix

"Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy" (from The Nutcracker)

"The Little Drummer Boy"

And finally, a karaoke track...

"I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas"

Musical Guests during Instrument Family Unit

Last month at Lannoye, we were fortunate to have one of our very own students perform for the 4th and 5th grade classes. One of the 5th graders has been taking violin lessons for a few years now, and she volunteered to do a playing demonstration for her peers. She prepared and performed a piece, and we were all very proud of her and thankful for her musical contribution!

Our in-house visitor followed our visitor from the middle school in October. Mr. Kozlovsky, the 8th grade band director at PCMS, packed up some brass instruments and came to visit us. He and I team-taught the 4th and 5th grade lesson for the day, and he performed pieces on horn, trombone, euphonium, and tuba. He used SmartMusic, a music education software program, and explained a bit how the band team uses it at the middle school.