Fourth Graders Show their Stripes in Patriotic Music Program

     Thursday, February 22 the Fair Grove Elementary 4th grade Music Program took place in the Upper Elementary Gym. First, the children were split into their separate classes, then they walked on to the stands. The program was a musical themed after America’s History with dialog intermixed with songs like Yankee Doodle, Declaration of Independence, Patriotic Medley, This Land is your Land, Dixie, When Johnny Comes Marching Home, God Bless America, Military Hymn Medley, 50 Nifty United States, and In America’s History.

The program had 85 students in total with over 60 having their own speaking parts, usually consisting of one sentence of dialog.

       The program was put together by Mrs. Heather Lumley, the elementary music teacher who combined 3 separate history programs into the one program the children performed. Mrs. Lumley stated, “I worked on scripts over Christmas break so that we could have during the month of January.” The auditions were held for the characters of Washington, Jefferson, Betsy Ross, Martha Washington, and Lincoln. The smaller speaking roles were given to the students who wanted them. Mrs. Lumley added, “We continued to work on acting, speaking, and singing through the months of January and February.”

       The program did have a few bumps in the road to the performance though. The students missed out on several rehearsals for the program due to unexpected days off of school due to weather. Another issue was getting costumes for the students that would match the multiple time periods that the program progressed through. Despite the obstacles the students and Mrs. Lumley faced, the program went off without a hitch. The students all knew their lines and had costumes their size, from their time period.  

       The next program Mrs. Lumley is putting together is for the first grade class in April. The theme for the program is going to be the 50’s. Mrs. Lumley said, “I have done some type of 50’s program for the last six or seven years. It is always a crowd pleaser. It doesn’t get much cuter than first graders singing old favorites like Rockin’ Robin and Lollipop!”