"Woodchuck Chuck" - an except from 3rd grade today

Due to the scheduling of language lab today, Ms. Wasson's class wound up with an extra 15 minutes of music.  We decided to use it to record the piece learned earlier in the week.  The "setting" is posted here as well.  Nicely done!

Week One in Music -- Off To a Good Start

We got off to a very good start in music at Wonderland this week.  All the classes came to the MPR for some of my favorite first week lessons with a few new wrinkles.  One thing I am trying this year is have my lyrics on slides instead of chart paper (see above).  Technology also seems to enhance the kids experience -- if I can just get them to stop making shadow puppets.

For those families new to the school each class receives 30 minutes of general music instruction a week.  The lessons are based on several big ideas per grade level and organized into units -- for example we currently starting our "fundamentals unit" where I review the some of the big ideas from last year and introduce the skills the kids will need going forward.  Of course, I try to never let this framework stand in the way of a fun activity or a good song.

This year I will try to update the blog at least once a week, so keep checking back to find out what's going on in the MPR.

We're back -- live from the MPR!

If it feels like the summer was the shortest on record that's because it was! But I for one am very excited to be back starting my 4th year at Wonderland.

There are several important changes -- from the new website, to several new teachers, to the address of this blog -- it is now livefromthempr.blogsspot.com. But one thing that hasn't changed is our emphasis on student created music, because let's face it, we tend to get more excited about things we invent ourselves. And I hope to use this blog a lot more this year to help this process along.

To get us started I created a little beatbox piece entitled "A New Year At Wonderland". Click on the title and it will take you to site called Incredibox where, after you listen to my piece, you will be invited to create one of your own. Incredibox is a French website, but I thing you'll be able to figure it out. Feel free to send me a link to your work at richardlawton@sbcglobal.net.

Let's get this party started!

Thanks for another great year in music!

Hi Wonderland Kids and Families -- just wanted to thank you all for another amazing year at our little school in the canyon. I want especially thank the fifth graders for their wonderful performance at culmination (check out the video) and everybody for the thoughtful gifts I received this week. Have a great summer everybody!

Ukulele Lesson 4 - Em Chord & "Forever Young"

5th Grade Uke Players -- here is the last chord we will need for our performance - Em - and the first part of the Bob Dylan song, "Forever Young." If you know the Bob Dylan version, you will notice it has been adapted to be a better partner for "Somewhere Over the Rainbow."

Wonderland Ensemble Concert - Finale

One of my favorite parts of this process is to get the three ensembles, who have been working independently all year, to perform at least one song together. This piece, a folk tune from Trinidad made famous by Harry Belafonte, had exactly one rehearsal with all the groups together. They did a great job with it! It's been a good year for ensemble -- we'll miss our bandmates who are moving on to middle school, but hopefully many of the third and fourth graders will try ensemble again next year!

Wonderland Ensemble Concert - Orff

As I have told the kids Orff-Schulwerk is the approach to instruction that use most often at Wonderland, but Orff also refers to a really cool set of percussion instruments. Here's the Orff Ensemble performing a challenging piece by Bela Bartok. Very nice stuff!