Spotlight on Special Subjects

Our school district hosted "Parent's Visitation Day" as a part of American Education Week last week, and my classes were involved in a news broadcast of the school's TV station on that special day. It was a fun time, and this activity really helped put a focus on the special subjects in a positive light.

The broadcast started with our physical education teacher leading his class in the gym (and parents, teachers, and students in classrooms all over the building via TV) in an afternoon stretch workout. Immediately after the stretches, the cameras came into music class to catch the lesson for first graders on "There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly".



Beforehand, I had enlisted the willing help of a third grade class to serve as my co-teachers for the lesson.  One of the third graders was happy to dress up in the "Old Lady Costume" and other third grade students led small groups of first graders to "feed" the Old Lady all of the items we sang about in the song.  Other third grade students helped by holding books for the students to follow, and by pointing to pictures of each item to help the students stay on task.The help of the older students really helped to move the lesson to a "camera-ready" pace and both groups of kids really enjoyed the interaction and their moment in the spotlight.

If your school is lucky enough to have its own television broadcast, by all means brainstorm some ways to have your music featured on a broadcast.  Even if you are in a school with simple loudspeaker announcements, you can find ways to feature music for the school to enjoy.  "Mystery Singer" could easily become "Mystery Instrumentalist"...then you could have the student body guessing both the instrument played and the person playing it!