The Panda Class Variety Hour

Last Wednesday night was Parents Night at my school. We had an event like this in May for our students' Moms, but this one was aimed at the whole family. We put on a bit of a variety show. The class performed three songs, one play and a (heavily orchestrated) lesson. It's amazing how much time has to go into practicing for a night like this, and even though we spent all the free time we had for two months practicing, my students never got bored of it! They would cheer when I told them it was time to practice their play, so at least they had fun with it.

On Wednesday night I was too busy to video tape the show, but I did record a few non-dress rehearsals. It's just as well because the rehearsals turned out to be better than the real show! Kids have a weird way of switching personalities when their parents are around, and some of my good kids clammed up on that night and then my most annoying student found a way to be even more annoying. The parents all said they enjoyed it, though, and thanked us for our work so overall it was a success.

My class sang "Tomorrow" (from Annie), "Hello To All the Children of the World", and "I Love You 5" by Nevershoutnever. Yep, I'm slowly turning them into little emo kids. Here's "I Love You 5" (and no, they were never able to synchronize that opening dance):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UORShlb0cR0

And here's the play we did: "Clang Clang Rattle Bing Bang", which is based on the Robert Munsch book "Mortimer". I know it's a little hard to understand them, but keep in mind they're speaking in a second language, and they're really only 5-6 years old. On Parents Night they did a better job on this play than in the video below... probably because my co-teacher threatened to take away gym class and free choice time forever if they didn't shape up when she took them to a room away from their parents to get into costume before the play. I love Jamie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8sAShTS7_Y