"The energy that can help mankind is that which lies within the child." Maria Montessori - Secret of Childhood
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Cinco de Mayo- This year we decided to have a celebration of Mexican culture, including art, food, song, dance, and percussion. We had the marimba group from University of West Florida, as well as a Mexican singer and a guitarist. Students made papel picado (cut paper flags), sampled guacamole and enchildadas, learned some new Spanish words, learned folkloric dance steps, and played maracas.
Recorder Lessons: We welcome Amanda Cook (voice and music teacher) to the MSP family. She is teaching recorder to 6-9 and 9-12 students once a week. They look forward to adding this to their end-of-the-year performances.
9-12 Music Performance Leads to Exciting Connections: 9-12 has studied American History in their cultural studies this year, so their closing ceremony will include a song about famous events and people from the US. This song, titled "Ballad for Americans" has not been performed for many years. As Reita Paul (MSP music teacher) was looking for the music and lyrics, historians got interested in the fact that our students would be reviving it. There was such interest because a famous African-American performer, Paul Robeson, did the piece. Dr. Lillie J. Edwards, history professor at Drew University in New Jersey, met with the students to discuss intolerance throughout American history. The students even had a chance to have a conference call with Jeff, the leader of the New York City Labor Chorus; the last group to revive the song. The director even mailed several books about Paul Robeson to the school as donations for our library.