Welcome to 2018! At the close of the 2017 school year, the 3rd graders at Mill Road Elementary shared a mini-musical called "Shiver Me Timbers" at the annual Carol Sing. Each third grade class learned two songs that were sung through out the script. Additionally this year, we had a group of 9 students who came to before school rehearsals and shared two of the songs that they worked on.
The before school Orff Ensemble set the mood as they opened the show with a piece called "Ere the Waters of the Deep" by Teresa Jennings, with an orff ensemble arrangement that I created.
Nearly 30 students volunteered several lunch recesses to rehearse speaking parts for our musical. "Shiver Me Timbers" told the story of a pirate crew who was on their way to their annual pirate get-a-way in Hawaii when their ship ran off course and they ended up in the North Pole. The crew was very surprised when they saw white mounds of snow instead of white sandy beaches! Mrs. Burkett's class performed "Wintertime" by David and Ann Ellsworth. Students added boomwhackers, boom tubes and glockenspiels to challenge their performance skills.
In the story, the elves at the North Pole were just as surprised to see three rowboats full of pirates coming ashore. Mrs. Burkett's class performed the traditional Christmas tune "I Saw Three Ships" arranged by John Riggio.
The elves were frightened to see these strangers at the North Pole, because as everyone knows pirates are terribly mean! They quickly learn that they shouldn't have prejudged their visitors. The pirates turn out to be very friendly and the elves and pirates bond over a carol sing-a-long! Students, faculty and nearly 130 visitors participated in the traditional sing-a-long.
After the sing-a-long, the before school Orff Ensemble shared a piece I wrote called "As You're Walking" which was based on a speech piece by BethAnn Hepburn. After learning the piece, the students practice honing their improvisation skills. We performed the piece in Rondo form in which the A section kept coming back and the intermediary sections were performed as student improvisation.
Mrs. Tuell's class shared the song "Talk Like A Pirate Day" by David and Ann Ellsworth after Santa declared the day "Talk like a Pirate Day" in honor of the friendly pirates.
The 3rd graders of Mrs. Tuell's class closed the show with the song "Hawaiian Christmas" by Karl Hitzemann to celebrate the Pirate's final arrival in Hawaii with the help of Santa and his elves. We watched an instructional video on basic hula dance moves and the class created their own hula for the song.
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