Week Six: Haslett Middle School, 7th Grade

Today was my sixth observation of Mrs. Valla's seventh grade choir, and it was a wonderful learning experience! The students were going to Festival right after class, so it was a pretty exciting day. I finally had the chance to work with the students a bit. We had limited time because the class had to prepare to leave for Festival, but I was able to do a quick body warm-up exercise with the students. We started by shaking out our arms and legs for counts of 8 down to 1, and the students seemed to be really into it! I heard one of them say "Ohh we did this in gym class!" As I looked around the room, it appeared that everyone was participating enthusiastically. I tried to give instructions with as few words as possible, and I think that really helped to keep them engaged. Afterwards, we did some stretching and got into a good singer's stance for the rest of the warm-up led by Mrs. Valla.  The class then sang through their two festival pieces, and they sounded great! It was really inspiring to see middle schoolers so excited and focused for Festival. I look forward to having the opportunity to work with the students more next week!