The Nutcracker: 1st Grade Fun

This week in 1st grade music we began our study of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker." On Thursday December 13th, I will be taking the 1st graders on a field trip to the Power Center to see the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre's performance of this famous ballet. We first learned about the story by acting out different parts. Certain students got to act out different characters, and some "special guests" even visited our classroom (Drosselmeyer, The Sugar Plum Fairy, and The Mouse King).

From now until our field trip on the 13th, we will continue to learn about The Nutcracker music through fun movement activities and story telling. We will also learn more about what a ballet is, and how we should act when in the audience. I am already looking forward to this field trip, and judging from their engagement in class this week, I know the students are too!

Here are some of the most recognizable pieces from the Nutcracker. As we learn more about them, you can play them at home and see if your child can teach you some of the movement activities that we learned.

**NOTE: You will not be able to play the recordings without downloading the Spotify program to your computer first. It is a free program and allows you access to a huge library of streaming music. It is pretty awesome :)**