Mommymadememashmym&m’s, mommyma….. Can you hear the music ringing in your ears? That’s the Chickering Chorus! Chorus is a program we have at our school. We sing songs that are so cool like “Cantar!”, “Symphony of the Heart”, and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. “Cantar” is in Spanish. It is so fun! We practice at 7:30 in the morning and if you come before 7:30 you get a blue ticket, which was an idea of a 5th grade student. To reward us for our attendance, Ms Pappas gives us a bead, (blue, white or black) for each time we come, which we add to our necklace. A couple of times a year, she will recognize the students with perfect attendance with a gold bead.

We asked Ms Pappas a few questions about what she thinks about chorus. One question was what is the process of picking the music? She told us that she takes the whole summer to choose the songs. The songs that “stick in her head” on the first day of school are the ones she chooses. We asked what do you like about teaching chorus? She loves the people and think chorus is a great thing and every single person that does it is a great person. Chorus is fun and musical and we love Ms Pappas so much and we thank her for all her time.

The Chickering Reporters interviewed two kids from third, fourth, and fifth grade and learned some of their opinions about chorus.  We asked three questions from each grade and these are some of their answers.  The third graders first question was what is your favorite part of chorus?  Some said they liked listening to Ms Pappas tell her jokes because they made the them laugh and the reviewing the songs because you get to sing with our friends and it is fun.  We asked the third graders what is your favorite song?   “Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening” because it has a high pitch; another is “Cantar” because it is in a different language (Spanish).  The final question we asked do you like to perform in concerts?  The overall response from the third graders was “Yes” because they like to perform in front of people.

We asked the forth graders, What’s your favorite part of chorus? Most fourth graders replied that they like being with their friends.  What is your favorite song? The students said that “Cantar” because it is cool, loud and funky. Finally, we asked do you think that other grades should be able to do chorus? Students said yes but not younger than second graders.

What is your favorite part of chorus? we asked the fifth grade students. They said they like getting to sing songs with Ms Pappas. What is your favorite song? The one said “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” because he has a violin part in it. Another said, “Symphony of the Heart” because she likes the piano music. We asked, do you think we should have a choice of songs? The answers were mixed, “No” because Ms Pappas knows what songs are written at an appropriate key for students to sing. Another said, “Yes” because sometimes Ms Pappas picks songs that we don’t really know so maybe we could pick one that we know instead. We thank the students for giving us their thoughts about chorus.

Even though 7:30 in the morning is early, all the students, who participate, love singing together with Ms Pappas.

Reported by Abby and Sarah