Rhythm Theme Elementary Choral Program

I don't do themes for my concerts very often- I find it too restrictive most of the time for me to get the perfect songs for my elementary choirs- but I just finished planning my upcoming spring concert with the theme of "rhythm" and I am so excited about it I had to share! If you are looking for a chorus program for your elementary choirs, or just some good selections to add to your concert, these are great options!

For context, I have one elementary chorus that meets during the school day as a pullout class with 5th and 6th graders. I have around 65 students in the group in the group this yea, and I always try to choose songs over the course of the year that include parallel harmony, a capella singing, solo opportunities, and a mix of traditional choral and pop songs in multiple languages. They sang an a capella song and songs in 3 different languages with some parallel harmony and only a few solo opportunities for our winter concert so I'm focusing on including more parallel harmony and solos in the spring.

Here are the songs I chose:

Feel Good Feeling by Blessing Offor

Rhythm of Life arr. John Leavitt (2-part)

Rhythms of One World by Gary Fry (2-part)

Gang of Rhythm by Walk Off the Earth

And a few others I considered that I also love:

Oye la Musica by Jay Althouse (2-part)

Rhythm Nation by Janet Jackson

I am planning to use backing tracks for all of the songs except for Gang of Rhythm- I have colleagues in my building who play instruments so I'm hoping to have them play with us for that one!

If you want to read more about how and why I use pop songs in elementary chorus, here are two posts on that (with a running list of all the songs I have done):

I have only done a couple of other concerts with themes like this- here are those 2 song lists if you're looking for more great pieces to do with this age group:

And you can catch up on all my posts related to all things elementary choir here, including rehearsal procedures, warmups, teaching strategies for introducing parallel harmony, lesson planning, and more. I hope this is helpful for anyone looking for selections for their next concert!