Daegu Elementary fourth graders sing about fire safety
Daegu Elementary School (DES) fourth graders recently sang about fire safety as part of a contest sponsored by the Daegu City Fire Department and the City of Daegu.
School personnel worked together as a team to facilitate the school’s entry. Mrs. Emily Hatch, music teacher, and Ms. Jessica Lee, fourth grade teacher, collaborated on the song, and Mr. Sungmok Lee, Administrative Officer, assisted with translating and planning the logistics of having the fire department representatives come on base.
The fourth graders worked in vertical learning groups in music class to create new lyrics to match the rhythm of the verse of “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” by Billy Joel.
“I learned about vertical learning groups in my CCRS Core Instruction training earlier this year,” said Emily Hatch. “It has been such a powerful tool to have students collaborating and discussing together while they can write on white boards to show their learning.”
Students then created their own motions to go along with the song. Students also utilized their CCRSA standards as they evaluated their own performance and set goals for rehearsing and refining their work. In this differentiated music classroom, students who needed a greater challenge were able to play the keyboard, bass guitar, and drum set to accompany their classmates. Ms. Hatch was able to step back and let the class perform by themselves.
When representatives from the Daegu Fire Department came to record the school’s official submission for the contest, students were able to observe professional sound and video equipment and learned more about the process of professionally recording a performance.
