December Composer of the Month

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. I had my gallbladder removed on the Monday before the break and I'm just now getting back in the swing of things. I can't believe that December is here and we're already talking about Christmas and our Sweets & Songs performance that will take place in January.

The 3rd and 4th graders are working on their music for Sweets & Songs. I'm am still waiting on conformation of the time of Sweets & Songs, but I believe the date is January 25th. I will be sending home letters with all of the information about Sweets & Songs as soon as I hear from the high school. I am ecstatic about the childrens' performance and I am confident you will enjoy it if you come and join us. Tickets are $10 a piece and half of the ticket sales come right back to your students for their music classes. I am really hoping we can earn enough money to buy 2 more iPads for our stations. So please come support us in January.

Since it's getting close to Christmas, I thought it would be a great time to have Peter Tchaikovsky as our "Composer of the Month." The kids have learned a lot about him this week. Each child has a music journal and they write the facts about the composers in them as I teach. We will continue this composer through the month of December. These are the facts that your child should know as of this week.

Peter Tchaikovsky:
*born and lived in Russia
*started piano lessons at around 5 years old
*parents did not want him to choose a career in music
*when he became an adult he decided to start a career in music anyway
*most famous for his music in "The Nutcracker" ballet

We have listened to "The Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and the children seem to recognize this piece of music from the movie, "Home Alone" as well as commercials, "Tom & Jerry" and much more.

At the end of the class, if time has permitted, we have read and sang along to "Pete the Cat Saves Christmas."