Monthly Archives: October 2011

Students were gently guided through the songwriting process last week by local songwriters and performers Rick Weiss and Kate Finn. Rick and Kate have worked with the Community of Writers group for years and bring their writing and musical talents … Continue reading →

Last week Ms. Leake’s student teacher Kristina Engstrom (she does some observations and teaching with us as well) did a lesson with the class on making choices based on Tuck Everlasting. The students were challenged to write a short persuasive … Continue reading →

It’s amazing to think that last week at this time the song (“Animals Are Unique”) did not exist and now it is permanently stuck in my head. I’m betting that it is stuck in the heads of the 24 fourth … Continue reading →

Thursday’s songwriting session was all about practice. The class practiced the vocal and marimba parts in small groups and the chorus as a larger group. In this picture, several students are shown working on their vocal part with Kate and … Continue reading →

Kate and Rick came in today ready to rock! Rick brought his awesome 88-key Yamaha keyboard and Kate brought her guitar and together they presented the class with a rough draft of the song, along with chords and a melody. … Continue reading →

Rick and Kate led the students through the process of refining the lyrics that the class started writing on Monday. They talked about choosing words that rhyme, that make sense in the context of the song topic (in this case … Continue reading →

Local musicians and songwriters Kate Finn and Rick Weiss joined our class this morning and worked with the students on picking a topic for the song they will be working on the rest of the week. The topic that was … Continue reading →