"Joy" Theme Elementary Choral Program

If there's one thing students and teachers could use more of right now, joy is definitely at the top of the list. I am so excited about my spring elementary choral program this year, and it has made our weekly chorus rehearsals even more of a highlight of the week because it brings (literal) joy to the day! If you're looking for a fun elementary choir program, or even just a song to add to yours, that includes simple part singing and a range of genres and opportunities for musicality, I highly recommend these pieces!

For context, I have one elementary chorus that meets once a week 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 year, and they are such a great group! Ever since finding one of the songs about joy last summer I've been hoping to do a joy-themed program, and I am so excited with the way it has turned out.

Here are the songs I chose:

Joy Revolution I love that the two singer-songwriters who created and performed this song are women of color, the range is perfect, and it's an easy song to do in 2-part parallel harmony and include some featured soloists.

Joy This song was the original inspiration for this program- the first time I saw the linked arrangement with The Choir Room, I got chills! It is the perfect way to give younger students the opportunity to sing a gospel-style song without specific religious references, and it has opportunities for parallel harmony and a 3-part layered ostinato section that is so cool. It is definitely my students' favorite too!

I've Got Joy I stumbled on this song while scouring the internet for one more joy-themed song to complete my program and was thrilled to stumble on this one by Otto Gross and co! This is another great one for teaching part-singing and it's the only one on this list with an actual written octavo.

The great thing about this theme is it was super easy to tie in the orchestra and band- everyone has an easy arrangement of "Ode to Joy" they can pull together! So this will be the first time we have every ensemble performing something related to the concert theme.

I used to say I'm not a concert theme person but after doing 4 themed concerts in the last few years I don't think I can say that anymore! I still think that the priority for me is finding good songs the students will love that incorporate the choral and vocal skills I want to teach them with a variety of genres, styles, tonalities, and languages is the highest priority for selecting elementary choir concert pieces, but when a theme naturally emerges in the process that is a cool bonus! You can see all of the themed elementary choral programs I've put together in this post if you're looking for more great songs:

And if you want to see all of my posts related to teaching elementary choir, from rehearsal techniques to my favorite songs, arranging pieces for elementary choir to my favorite warmups, you can see them all here.

Preparing for a Student Teacher

I just finished hosting a student teacher, and it was such a great experience for both of us! When you're getting ready to host a student teacher, it's so helpful to have some basic information prepared to share with them to help them get started on the right foot. Today I'm sharing what I gave my student teacher before their first day and what I did to help them feel prepared.

1. Things to print/ save

I actually gave my student teacher digital and hard copies of all of the things on this list, because you never know if they will end up working better having a piece of paper to look at, or being able to look it up on their computer. Mine ended up using both pretty frequently, so I was glad to have them both set up- I made a folder in google drive called "student teacher" to house all of the documents and files related to their placement, and put a folder in there called "reference materials" and "curriculum materials".

The reference materials included:

-building calendar that lists all of the events/ field trips/ drills/ etc happening within the school during their placement

-district calendar with all of the early dismissal/ holidays and the letter days for our rotational schedule

-my class schedule

-seating charts/ class lists for each class

-staff meeting schedule

The curriculum materials included:

-yearly outline of what is covered in each month of the school year for each grade

-scope and sequence documents

-lesson plans and materials for the months of their placement

-sheet music for chorus classes

-materials I use for lesson warmups 

2. Things to discuss

Because my student teacher started right after December break, we were able to meet over break before their placement to talk, which was really helpful. If you can make it work with your schedules, I highly recommend meeting with the student teacher before their placement starts so you can give them the documents you've prepared and have a chance to talk beforehand and get to know them a little bit!

Of course there will be different specific things to discuss with each person, but I think the most important things to go over with student teachers before they start include:

-explanation of the documents I shared with them

-brief overview of my management systems/ how I run my classes

-basic idea of when I tend to arrive and leave from work each day

-general idea of how teachers in my building tend to dress

-when, how, and where duties work

-where and how I eat lunch

-where to park when they get to school

Some of these may seem trivial but they are all things that will help a student teacher be more comfortable and confident coming into school the first day. Of course it's also important to ask them what questions they might have and give them time to talk through anything else they're wondering about!

3. Things to show

I was lucky enough this time to be able to meet my student teacher in the school building over break when nobody else was around so I could show them around the school a little bit when things were quiet. I highly recommend doing this if you can! 

Besides a general tour of the building, here are some specific things I think are important to show them:

-my classroom and a basic idea of where things are in the room/ what things are used for

-my teacher desk area, and where their teacher desk area will be

-my closet/ storage and where I keep my purse during the school day

-the closest teacher bathroom

-how the classroom phone works

-where the emergency exits are when we have a drill

-the staff lounge/ fridge and microwave for lunch

I definitely don't expect anyone to absorb all this information in one sitting, but I think it's helpful to go over all of this before their placement starts so they have some time to process everything, and when they come in the first day they aren't starting completely from scratch. If you've hosted a student teacher before, I'd love to hear what you shared with them in the beginning to help them get started on the right foot! I'm hoping to share more about my experiences hosting a student teacher in the future, so if you have any questions please leave them in the comments as well.

More Female Musicians for Women's History Month and Beyond

I honestly have never been intentional about doing anything to specifically recognize Women's History Month in my classroom because it falls at the same time as Music In Our Schools Month, but I have been making a conscious effort for years to make sure female musicians of all types are represented in the examples I share. Three years ago I shared my first list of female musicians, and today I'm sharing more of my favorites to highlight with elementary and middle school students!

1. Gunhild Carling

She is a multi-instrumentalist, singer, and performer- this video is how I first discovered her!

2. Pinar Toprak

She is one of the top video game music composers today as well as a well-known film score composer, most famously writing for Captain Marvel and Fortnite.

3. TOKiMONSTA

She is a well-known record producer and DJ who makes all her own songs.

4. Lido Pimienta

She is a Colombian Canadian singer-songwriter who blends many different musical genres into her music.

5. Nandi Bushell

She is a young multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter most well-known as a drummer.

Of course there are hundreds of other amazing female artists that would be excellent examples to feature- if you have more favorites please leave them in the comments! Besides just featuring female musicians, there is a lot we can do to respect, reflect, and respond to the needs of our female students- you can read my previous post with more thoughts on that here. For more female musicians I love to feature, here is my previous post on female musicians.

Musicians to Feature in Elementary Music

One of the easiest ways to help our elementary music students see themselves as musicians is to show them examples of musicians of all different types that they can identify with. Over the years I have collected a growing list of musicians with an ever-expanding breadth of intersectional identities and areas of music, including kid-friendly videos showcasing their musicianship, that I have shared with my students in my elementary music classes. This post is a collection of those lists.

I don't do any sort of music history unit or anything like that, but I find these short videos are the perfect thing to have on hand to insert in my lessons as examples of a concept we're studying, a quick reward for a behavior incentive, or to connect to a heritage month. I hope you find some new musicians to share with your students to improve the representation of different identities in your classroom!

I was actually pleasantly surprised to realize how many awesome musicians I've found over the years. I've honestly expanded my own personal music listening through the process of looking for musicians to share with my students. Even so, I know I have barely begun to scratch the surface- there are so many more fantastic musicians representing so many more identities that I haven't covered in this list! I would love for you to help me expand the list for all of us by sharing your favorites in the comments below.