Music, as a means of communication, has no boundaries. Its power can bring people of all creeds together in peace. Maria Montessori

by Eva Esparza, Music Teacher

I wanted to share this quote because it inspires me to be part of Aidan's Montessori community, which embodies the hope for world peace at the heart of our pedagogy.

This school year, I began my music classes a little bit differently. I started my music lessons teaching "the peace song" which is officially called "Light a Candle for Peace," composed by Shelley Murley. This year, Aidan decided to participate in the United Nations' International Day of Peace (on September 21st) and we decided to introduce this new tradition with this song.

Here is a video of the song:

And here's a link to music you can sing along with at home.

The featured image on this post, above, is of our school singing it, too!

Here is a picture of one of the student's symbolization work- inspired by this song. With symbolization, every shape represents a grammatical part of speech. I love to see arts integration in the academic life of the school.

In addition to our group choral lessons (which are offered to students twice a week), I will continue to offer individual music lessons on the Tone Bars during the Montessori work cycle. The Tone Bars are a Montessori material in the Elementary classroom that allow children to effortlessly transpose melodies (i.e playing the same melody in different keys). The Tone Bars have a beautiful bell-like sound in the classroom, and students can use them to practice reading music, counting, and playing melodies by ear within a particular key. Here's a photo of an Elementary child working with the Tone Bars:

I also enjoy weaving drama lessons and drama skills within group choral lessons. We have reintroduced (and newly introduced, for our new students and Elementary first years) the "tableau." Tableau is a term used in theatre, taken from an Old French word that meant a surface prepared for a painting. Today, the term is used in theatre to refer to a frozen picture made of bodies. Often in professional theatre, different scenes or acts may begin with actors frozen in a tableau.

In our classes, a small group of students will create a tableau (usually toward the end of Music class) to depict a specific scene in literature. We choose poems, songs, excerpts from books, scenes from plays, and history for our work in tableau. Children work together on these scenes as a team, directed by a designated "director" - one of their classmates. The students move silently while the words are narrated to the class/audience.

For a tableau to work, students must concentrate, remain in character/agree to pretend, be silent, pose with energy, use body positions to communicate information about the character and the circumstances, use facial expressions that communicate the character's thoughts and feelings, and remain frozen.

Working in tableau is really fun and will help us prepare for the Spring Musical.

It is our tradition to announce the Spring Musical first to the Elementary Sixth Years in January after the holidays. Stay tuned for more information on the Musical in 2018!

Thank you for a wonderful start to the school year!