Highview Students Plan and Run Concert – in Grade 1/2 Class
The cheque presentation.
By ROB FAULKNER
Benefit concerts have a rich history.
The 1971 Concert for Bangladesh raised $15 million thanks to George Harrison. In 1985, Live Aid raised $245 million for Ethiopian famine thanks to Bob Geldof. Asian tsunami relief concerts raised $30 million thanks to George Clooney.
You can add to that history the Camp Trillium benefit organized by Mrs. Depew’s Grade 1/2 class at Highview. Especially when you hear the behind-the-scenes stories.
When Katelyn, a student, asked “can we organize a concert?” teachers Barbara Depew and Connie Sun had no idea how much curiosity, creativity and inquiry it would require. Planning took four and a half months with the entire process led by students.
Brainstorming
“The students wanted to learn about what they needed to do to put on a concert,” Sun said. The class began with brainstorming. Their first chart surrounded the word Concert with words like songs, lights, seats, posters, instruments, clothing, roles and the word songs again, so it couldn’t be missed.
The students studied other tickets and programs to understand the task. They formed subcommittees to work on various parts of the project. Six-year-old Camryn was a dancer and says it was hard at first to agree on dance moves. She loved the concert so much that she and a friend are planning one at home “now I know what to do.”
The kids used their growing math and survey skills while planning. They did survey and acted on results for topics such as: What juice should we sell? What colour scheme is best? And, importantly, what charity should we support?
Just down the road from Highview is Camp Trillium, a registered charity created in 1984 to provide kids with cancer and their families with fun and enriching stays at camp. They run over 50 programs a year. The class invited the camp’s fundraising co-ordinator Carrie Arnold to explain what Camp Trillium does. They loved the idea of helping send kids to camp.
Handmade guitar.
For the concert, even the instruments were handmade. Brody made a guitar from paper and tape. It didn’t sound like his 13-year-old brother’s guitar. But, if he stretched its elastic strings, Brody could change the tones. His buddy Jonathon, 8, played drums. Why? “I’m amazing at drumming,” he says.
The boys weren’t thrilled with the sound of their homemade instruments. So, they laid down some tracks and layered music on top using GarageBand software. The band experimented with sounds; they even wrote their own music. Jonathon wrote his music in As and Bs to create patterns he could play on his drums, labelled A and B.
Behind the scenes, there were tricky jobs too. The students had to calculate how many songs they could play in the allotted time. Needing concession food, they Googled grocery stores and wrote letters appealing for donations. After a few follow-up phone calls, stores began to donate and the class had $85 to spend. They worked out unit prices for their food. They decided on who would work the counter and who, like Avalee, 7, would use other important skills like caring for little kids at the colouring table.
There were bumps along the way – or, really, just learning opportunities.
The class planned to sell bottled water before they learned of the HWDSB Environment Policy’s restriction on the sale of bottled water in schools. Teagan, 7, was excited to list the food for sale at the concert, including watermelon, water, Rice Krispies squares, freezies, bananas and apples. They even created and sold 25-cent “rock star photos” with their autographs.
On the day of the concert, the ticket booth and ushers greeted the parents, guardians and other fans who arriving with the beautiful tickets Ella had designed. Each had an assigned seat and a $2 price tag. Students had to scramble at times to make the seating work for groups of various sizes.
Collecting tickets.
Then the classroom grew quiet and the MC began to speak. As an ESL student from Korea, Kaum Kim did an incredible job, her teachers say. “Welcome to Highview’s best concert. Mrs. Depew’s students are working hard on dance and tickets and projects and programs,” she said.
Then came songs like “What Does the Fox say?” and “Wake Me Up.” Teagan was happy she could sing “Best Day of My Life.” They performed for 60 people over the two days.
When it was done, they did more math to add up ticket, food and photo sales. They invited Camp Trillium’s Arnold back and presented a handmade cheque and bags of coins totally $309. Everyone came away feeling like they had a role in the big event.
“The process was a challenging learning curve for the students,” Depew said. “They gained a lot of social and thinking skills by learning to problem solve along all the ups and downs.”
For teachers, the project linked to curriculum by mapping communities, using money for math and more. Students learned how to problem solve, collaborate and listen to peer feedback.
“They really led this and we coached them along the way,” Sun added.
In the end, students felt so much ownership that it created a debate as they learned about cheques and how to design a cheque for the presentation to Camp Trillium.
“The students questioned whether we (Connie and I) should sign it,” Depew recalled.
“They asked us what our job was,” Sun said with a smile.
Updated on Monday, June 27, 2016.