December 21 and 22

4th Grade With some apologies, we are going to work on a favorite song the 4th graders sing (apologies because we don't have sheet music). We will also work on March of The Crazy Ants and Dana the Manatee from Smart Violin. In the New Year, students will bring their books to school, and we will play from and improve our skills in reading sheet music.

5th & 6th Grade will reprise 2 or 3 of our more tender Christmas songs at, before, or after our final Advent Assembly on Monday, December 21, morning in the lobby. 6th graders can bring their instruments to the Butterfly Room to unpack and tune. Because of space, violins and violas will play standing, and we will do our best to play from memory the following 3 songs: What Child is This, Pat-a-Pan, and Carol of the Bells.
In class we will look at Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring to see how it sounds for the ensemble as a whole. We will also start playing other music in Strings Extraordinaire to prepare for future assemblies.

7th & 8th Grade On Tuesday, December 22, at 8am, we will play guitar and sing in the lobby as others come in. Many of our students know the chords well, and I have observed that playing some slower songs would help some students feel even more confident in playing the chords. We will play and sing some of the more tranquil Christmas songs (e.g. Silent Night and possibly What Child is This) as well as other songs that fit the mood (e.g., Let it Be, Brahms' Lullaby). I've given students the chance to look through Rise Up Singing to come up with other suggestions (one was Amazing Grace).