Anna Shelow (OH) & Rachel Gunderson (AZ)
Dear SongWorks Family,
As we celebrate another school year coming to a close and experience transitions with our students, we invite you to take a moment and reflect on the year. This is the perfect opportunity to note for ourselves what successes we had and want to repeat next year!
The end of the school year is a time to focus on connections with students and joyful musical experiences in the classroom. Leave them wanting more next year! Rachel and Anna both use the end of the year as a time to give students choices such as centers, games, and instrument stations.
Anna’s students look forward to game days at the end of the year. We make a list of every game we played that year and pull games from a hat, then play a few turns of each. Kids often also ask to play games from previous years. Watching my students play “The Penny Game” has been a real treat this week. We played it near the beginning of the year when the students didn’t know each other well. By this time of the year the students know each other so well that they can quickly guess who has the penny by just looking at everyone’s facial expressions. It’s a joy to see them working as such a close-knit group.
Rachel’s younger students are especially excited about free-time centers, when all the materials come out, and they get to decide what to play and who to play with. Her older students love student-led game days. The class has to figure out as a group how to choose a game, decide who goes first, and settle any disagreements among themselves. This is great preparation for life, and a much-needed reprieve from direct instruction!
The SongWorks Sharing Group on Facebook is a great place to find ideas to try with your students. Please consider sharing your end-of-year traditions with everyone! If you, like us, are looking for playful, professional rejuvenation and love spending time with kindred spirits, join us for SongWorks Certification courses July 14–18, in Salt Lake City, UT!
Have a wonderful summer!
SWEA President Anna Shelow
SWEA Immediate Past President Rachel Gunderson
