Music in March

KG Spring Show

The adorable three-year-olds in our nursery program

After they saw my first grade program this fall, I was asked to help the KG department choose some songs that would be suitable for the KG spring show.  In the past, the music teacher wasn't involved.  The teachers put together shows using current pop songs from the radio.  Each teacher would work up choreography for their wee ones and tailors would be enlisted to put together elaborate costumes for the big production.  They would practice on stage for several weeks taking up an enormous amount of time out of their curriculum to make sure their kids would shine.  This, as you could well imagine, got to be extremely stressful.  Some teachers were pretty good at putting a show together and some were pretty uncomfortable with the whole idea...but no matter, the show must go on!  You can well imagine how stressful this could be.

The assistants went all out with the decorations

After I came on the scene and they saw my first graders actually singing and doing little finger-plays, I was enlisted to help put together the spring show.  What I do isn't anything elaborate.  The children sing, mostly in tune, or at least that is what I aim for and I always do finger-plays.  Finger-plays help the little ones with diction and language development.  The voice inflection I use with the finger-plays helps them learn flexibility with their voices.  Since at last UAS had a "real" music teacher, I was elected to reorganize the KG show.

When it comes to dresses, the fluffier, the better!

For my American friends, I will explain that KG means nursery, preschool and kindergarten.  I was a little confused by the terminology myself when I got here.  I had not a clue I would be working with three year olds!  

So I was called in last fall and asked to help choose some music for the spring show.  Next thing I knew it was all in my lap, it was happening March 5 and there wasn't much time! We  organized the KG into 13 separate groups who would perform together; nearly 350 little ones!  So that meant I needed to come up with twenty six little songs and finger-plays.  Boy, that was really stretching my few resources!  I had to pull songs out of my memory and write out accompaniments, plus prepare separate songbooks for the teachers so they could help me teach the songs in their classrooms.  The teachers used their iPhones and actually recorded me teaching their students the songs they had to learn.  I only see these classes once every six days, so I really needed their cooperation.  And they really came through for me and most of all their students. It was truly a group effort.  The assistants, (we call them paras or teacher aids in the states) decorated the auditorium in this beautiful spring theme.  It looked like a magical garden when they were done.  

What  backdrop!

By the time the big day came, the children knew their songs and how to get off and on the stage.  The little ones looked adorable all dressed up in their finest.  I was most amazed at the performance of my little nursery children.  My first day with them was certainly not my finest hour!  It wasn't until about mid October until some of them finally stopped crying the minute they walked into my music room!  I haven't always been every child's favorite teacher, but I've never been known to make a child cry the minute I walk into a room!  But even these little wee ones sang "Where is Thumbkin?" with gusto and enthusiasm.  If we could accomplish that, I'd say the program was a great success.  I know there was some disappointment that the program wasn't very glitzy or as glamorous as previous productions, but the parents heard their children sing and recite poetry appropriate to their development, which if you think about it, is precisely what these little ESL children need and what better way to showcase what they learn in our school than with song and verse?  I will never hear "Where is Thumbkin?" again without remembering the sweet faces of the beautiful children of Kuwait.

A Breathtaking Bouquet

This is what awaited me when i returned to my classroom after the program.  I was totally blown away by the beauty of the bouquet.  It was a gift to me by the KG staff.  I feel so blessed here!

A Slight Case of the Blues

Feeling a little down today....nothing has changed, school is going well.  Had a very good day yesterday.  It was Arabic Mother's Day and I was at the computer when I heard a timid little knock on my classroom door.  It was one of my little second graders, Fatima, with her mother and sister.  She was carrying this huge basket full of fragrant jasmine bracelets.  I was a very lucky recipient!  Apparently she does this every year.  I was blessed all day with this lovely, lovely fragrance.  I was trying to get a report done for my principal.  I had only about 20 minutes left before my meeting.  Then another knock on my door.  This time I was presented with a lovely rose with the words "Happy Mothers Day" printed on a petal.  Yet another knock;  a slightly ornery boy with a Victoria's Secret Bag with perfume in it.  Went to my meeting with the principal and walked out the door and sitting on the secretary's desk was gift bag for me with the most beautiful chocolates you've ever seen!  All so unexpected.

I'm standing in our elementary office area.  In the background you see this wonderful mural of Kuwait painted by Mr. Bernie, our elementary art teacher.

All day I was  on the receiving end of many "Happy Mother's Day" greetings and unexpected kisses from little ones.  It happened once as I was walking past a line of first graders waiting to go somewhere and yet another time while they were filing out of my classroom.  

This is my sweet little Nebaska granddaughter, Julia

My granddaughter celebrated her first year on the planet this week.  I think this is the underlying reason for this little funk I am in today.  Despite all the wonderful and positive things about my life here in Kuwait, I just want to be home for a while.  It's been about eight months and I miss my family, I miss Iowa, and I miss my country.  There, I said it!  I will allow myself this little rant and you, my readers will have to put up with it a for just a little while.  I'm not normally morose, but life is not always a bowl of cherries as the saying goes.  Sometimes emotions just get the better of us and no rationalizing will make it go away.  I am in a good place, the work is satisfying, I have friends and tomorrow will be a better day. I feel a little better already.  Ah, the power of the pen! 

Third Grade Program

After I took this pcture, the principal told them to tuck in their shirts!

March has been a busy month for programs here at Universal American School in Kuwait.  March 27 we had our third grade show;  six sections, 150 students.  I put them into two groups.  Luckily, they all fit on the risers, barely!  

Some shirts got tucked in and others, not so much....

One of my all-time favorite kid songs is "Swinging on a Star."  It's from an old Bing Crosby movie call "Going My Way."  The song compares different personality traits attributed to animals, to the attitudes some kids have towards going to school and manners and other positive characteristics that we as adults think is important to cultivate in the next generation.  The kids loved it, of course.  We had this great choreography going too...but I had this little nagging feeling that maybe I should run the lyrics by my principal.  This culture does not appreciate swine like we do in Iowa.  We even have bacon flavored ice cream for heaven's sake!  They also don't care for donkeys for some reason which I didn't persue.  As you can about guess, even though the song doesn't put these animals in a good light, nor does it anywhere encourage the consumption of pork, I was told to nix the song, which I did.  So I had to dig out my files again and search for a new song. Thank goodness I brought a lot of music with me because you can't just make a quick phone call or go online and order music over here in the Middle East.  So I found "Picnic of the World."  The tune you would recognize as the "Can Can" song by Offenbach.  It goes, "All the nations sitting on a blanket, having a picnic, the picnic of the world."  And so it goes on to name all these nations having this great picnic and maybe things aren't always so perfect with "problems and annoyances, but all knowing that the deep down heart of it we're all a part of it, the PICNIC OF THE WORLD!!!!"  The kids came through.  They were even on key with the proper vowel placement for that last high note (although there was one part they got slightly lost, but since I also had to accompany them, plus try to help 75 ESL kids remember the lyrics of a pretty challenging song, I won't kick myself too hard for that!).

My third grade UAS singers.  So very proud of them!

After the second group of third grade students sang, it was time for my UAS Singers.  First semester I combined both 3rd and 4th grades.  But since the choir grew to almost 50 students, I decided to have a third grade UAS Singers the third nine weeks and 4th grade UAS Singers the second nine weeks.  So now I have a group of close to 40 third graders.  They are beautiful singers and quite a nice mixture of both boys and girls.  Before they sang their last number I made a little speech to the parents;  part of it went like this, "...despite differences in geography and language, we are all here to make this planet a better place for future generations."  It's only been 23 years since Iraq invaded Kuwait.  Many of the parents sitting in the audience were children during the time of that invasion and remember well those dark days.  I wish you could have heard these children sing from their hearts that day: "Peace in our hearts, peace in our hands, peace in our lives, peace our lands. Peace unto you, peace unto me, peace unto all the world's family.  So many people have helped shape our lives, striving for truth, they have lived and died.  We remember their faces, we remember their names, we strive to continue what they strived to gain."  

When they were finished singing, there wasn't a dry eye in the audience.  The beauty of the message and the purity of their voices touched the hearts of everyone who heard them sing that day.  That is a concert I will never forget.  

TTFN (ta,ta, for now!)

We have just started our fourth quarter.  Almost time the to start the great countdown!  I'm so looking forward to walking on green grass of Iowa again and checking out the latest blooms in my garden.  Three more months and I can hardly wait to see family and friends again and get caught up on everything I missed since last August.  Two or three more blogs and I should be home at last!

Blessings,

Charlotte