Make it a musical May! Every May (sometimes every March if the year is shorter) I plan to show a musical to all of my classes. Many students are not exposed to musicals at home and this is a great time to introduce them to a genre they may just fall in love with!
Top 5 Reasons to Have a Musical May
1. Most students are not familiar with traditional musicals and introducing your students to them now can create a life long love of musical theater.
2. It's May. It is possible that your schedule is just crazy with rescheduled classes from testing, field trips, assemblies, end of the year dodge ball tournaments or whatever. Musical May is a great way to give your kids awesome musical content with little prep and maximum flexibility.
3. It doesn't really matter if you finish the musical or not. If you do, awesome. If you don't, encourage your students to finish the musical on their own.
4. It's a great excuse to try out some flexible seating options to see it is for you. Students can use rugs, cushions and other flexible seating options while watching the movie.
5. Musicals make people happy. Don't you need a little more happiness during what can be the most stressful month of they year?
How to Make Musical May Special
I like to promote Musical May during the last week of April with signs posted around the school. It's an easy and fun way to get students excited about it. Sometimes I'll include quotes from the movie too. For example before I showed "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" I hung up this sign:
When Musical May (or March) begins, I create a mini bulletin board on my door to highlight it and post some general questions. These questions about the musical really spark some great discussions as students wait in the hall. Even teachers and staff members pop their heads in on occasion to see if they could remember the answers. Fun!
Sometimes I'll have a little snack for students during one of the times they visit my classroom for Musical May. At my local supermarket, they often have gigantic bags of popcorn for just a few bucks. One bag per class was usually more than enough and it made Musical March feel like an event. Another year (at a MUCH smaller school) I purchased ice pops for each class. They were inexpensive and the lovely ladies of lunch stored them in their freezer until I needed them. At another school I had an amazing PTO President that volunteered to come in every day for a week to pop enough popcorn for each student in music class. What a blessing!
Weekly trivia questions over the intercom can be another way to make Musical May a special event. Read the question and then give students a few second to think about it before giving the answer or have them drop their answers in a bucket or can and draw a winner for a small prize at the end of the day.
How to Make Musical May Educational
I do several things to make Musical May educational. When working with third grade and up, they watch their musical with a viewing guide. The viewing guides don't always focus on the musical aspects of the story, but more on setting, plot and interpreting the lyrics and motivations of characters.
When the musical is finished we may play a melody from the musical on Orff instruments, sing a song from the musical, write a parody of one of the songs or even write our own review of the musical. Older students enjoy creating slideshows that show the history of the musical too.
With younger students, we watch the musical for part of the period and then do an activity from one of my sets. They may write about a character or a song or do a coloring sheet. They next time they come we will do the same thing. We will watch the musical for most of the period and then do a short activity related to it. I have found that this works best for younger learners.
Making Musical May Happen
I have created several resources that you might find handy during your Musical May or Musical March. They are all actually bundled up in one bundle in my store (or you can purchase just what you need too). Check out this Musicals Mega Bundle which includes tons of resources for these musicals:
Wizard of Oz
Oklahoma
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
The Sound of Music Mega Pack
Mary Poppins Mega Pack of Activities
The King and I Mega Pack of Activities
Bye Bye Birdie Mega Pack of Activities
Annie Mega Pack of Activities
West Side Story
The Music Man
Singin' in the Rain
Other Musical Goodies:
My Book of Mary Poppins
My Book of The Wizard of Oz
Musicals Word Search Puzzles
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you show the same musical to all grades?
Right now I am teaching 3rd, 4th and 5th grades so I do. When I taught K-8 I showed two different musicals. One for the lower grades and one for the upper grades.
Do your admins support this?
You bet. I show them the worksheets and other activities that we will do with the musical and they are all on board. Sometimes they'll sneak in to watch them too!
Do you need special permission to legally show a movie in class?
Yep. In all likelihood, your district or building already has one. Learn more about copyright for schools
here.
Do you show the whole movie or just clips?
It really depends on many factors. The group I am showing it to, the amount of time I have to celebrate Musical May and the length of the musical are all things I take into consideration. As a general rule, yes. I try to show the entire musical.
I hope that these ideas help you have a happy Musical May! If you liked these ideas,
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