Every fall, I run our first school year assembly for grades K-4 by having a sing-along. This sing-along includes songs that the students have sung in my classroom for years, songs that they learned for concert performances last year, and songs that are current. I try to reach all of the students mixing up songs with the kindergarten favorites from George Cohen’s “Grand Old Flag” to Laurie Berkner’s “I Know a Chicken,” to fourth grade’s favorite current pop songs like JT’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling” from the upcoming movie, Trolls.
The students love this assembly. They sing along with their teachers and at certain times, dance in their seats. It is one of my favorite assemblies of the school year. To assist me, I hire my good friend who plays drums, which allows me to accompany on piano with simple to complex accompaniments.
Our playlist this year consisted of:
- Far Hills School Song
- Grand old Flag by George M. Cohan
- This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie
- Armed Services Medley (5 songs)
- Take Me Out to the Ballgame by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer
- Hello to all the children of the World (http://www.patana.ac.th/music/Year%201%20Show/Hello_to_all_the_children_of_the_world.htm)
- It’s a Small World by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman
- I Just Can’t Wait to be King from The Lion King by Elton John and words written by Tim Rice
- 50 Nifty by Ray Charles
- “Kindergarten” to the tune of “We Will Rock You/We are the Champions” by Queen
- I Know a Chicken by Laurie Berkner – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E7l0JPgclE
- Tall Tales – grade 1 (to the tune of She’ll be coming around the mountain)
- Blackbird – grade 1
- My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Do a Deer from The Sound of Music by Rodgers and Hammerstein
- Can’t Stop the Feeling – Justin Timberlake – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru0K8uYEZWw
- Hall of Fame – Will.i.am – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk48xRzuNvA
- We are the Young by Mary Donnelly
What do you need?
- Song list
- Powerpoint/Prezi/Keynote that has the lyrics (if you perform an image google search of the songs, you will find many pre-made powerpoints/picture files of the lyrics so that you do not need to recreate the wheel)
- Chord charts of the songs (perform a google search to find these or look in any fake book)
- A very nice teacher to run the powerpoint of lyrics
- A friend to accompany you on drums (optional)
- Microphone
- Screen
- Projector
- Time to test out the equipment to make sure it works
- Time to create the powerpoint and to practice the songs
I hope that this inspires you to create an elementary sing-along.
Upcoming Posts:
- One way to flip your elementary music classroom
- Halloween Resources for PreK/K
- Chromebooks in the Elementary Music Classroom
