Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The Silent Instrument

MacGregor's teacher plays the guitar, banjo and maybe another stringed instrument. Outside of school he is in a band that plays mainly folksy music. The benefit of this for MacGregor's class is that they sing everyday in school. If you get this teacher for 1st grade you will perform a musical assembly for the rest of the school in the month of May. Chase knew this and was so excited when MacGregor was assigned to Mr. Bs class.


The big program is this Friday. I think they will be performing 10 songs. They keep it "hush hush " even from the parents. I don't think there are speaking parts but I do know there are props involved. One number involves "moster suits". And then each child was assigned to make a homemade instrument that does NOT make any noise for the final number. The instrument needed to be sturdy - made from heavy cardboard, plastic or wood. MacGregor thought we could just whittle up a native american flute. When I told him we just didn't have that kind of time (nor the expertise) he decided he would make a "tissue box guitar", but then we got another idea from my dad so we decided to try something new. We luckily had some very thick cardboard. We did help Gregor cut it out, we decided it was not in anyone's best interest to turn a first grader loose with box cutters. But he did all the painting and used a black marker to trace the pencil lines that Dan had faintly drawn for the keys. All in all I think it turned out terrific and I look forward to seeing the other 24 homemade silent instruments.

5 comments:

O family said...

Brittney,
All of your kids are so cute. I wish we could get together more! Oh, and I absolutely adore the pictures with Grandma and Grandpa. They make my heart melt.

Christine said...

Looks like MacGregor did a great job- I hope the performance goes well. Sounds like he has a great teacher to do all of those things with the kids!

Anonymous said...

I think that all parents would like to have their kids be able to practice on "silent instruments." I know that mom and dad would have loved my oboe to be silent those first couple years... Looks like MacGregor had fun with his saxaphone.

B said...

How fun! I remember a silent guitar in our house for awhile. I hope the concert was fantastic.

Anonymous said...

I remember a little girl who played a real saxaphone. I think it almost rested on the floor she was so short. But she did a fine job on it. I wonder what instrument MacGregor will choose to play when it is time.
Mamaw