First Grade FUN!

FIRST GRADERS!!!!! To start the day! Maturity. Sophistication. Capability. Vocabulary. Interest. It's such a treat to work in the elementary schools. I'm always thrilled to work with 'the big kids.'

Before I type one more word. Let me point out the obvious. Well at least it's obvious to me!!! Take a look at that first picture. The clock on the wall says 8:20 and we're already well underway. YEAH! (That's my only adjustment with elementary schools. LOL. They expect me to get underway prior to 9:00 a.m. Hurray for public school teachers who 'function' before 9 -- on a daily basis.)

Let me also take a minute to point out another detail in this first picture. Even MORE obvious to me. That fellow stretching behind my 'captains.' That fellow is my husband. The splashy "Mr. Debbie" as he is affectionately referred to periodically. He is the man behind me. Quite literally. He has my back. Again. Literally. At this moment, captured forever in time, he is changing the batteries in the remote control that is hooked to my CD player. We realized they had abruptly died during the sound check well before 8:00 a.m. He has tracked down new batteries and gotten me up and running in the nick-of-time. YEAH ALLEN!!!!!!!!!

Here we are working together to grasp the concept that I am the one who made the illustrations, the quilts which become the pictures within my picture books. It amazes me that even after mature first graders 'see' the actual, physical quilts -- right beside the open book...... that even as they leave, one little fellow said to me during the transition out the door, "But who makes the pictures in your books?"

People always ask me what age group my materials are intended to serve. A very reasonable question. I don't have a simple, straight-forward answer.

I design my songs for children. I don't really focus on any given age to bracket. I know that first graders are just as eager as three year olds to be engaged with music. The arrangements lend themselves to participation -- from simple toe tapping to knee-drummin' to full body jumpin'. Those skills translate slightly differently from preschool to elementary, but not dramatically so.

I'm certain I select a slightly different play list for two year olds than one I would design for second graders..... thinking as I type, now. I don't know that it's so much the selections chosen that are different, as it is the tone of my interaction and presentation that is different. I need to give this some more thought to articulate.

I think all children respond to enthusiasm. They all respond to engagement and interaction. Eighteen months or nine years. Children appreciate the invitation to participate. They all know sincerity when they see it. They each are grateful to know that laughter and fun are allowed encouraged and expected. It's my experience that children respond when invited. My music is for children.