What do you get when second graders engage in cooperative learning, collaboration and creativity? The Beasley Opera, of course!
Mrs. Barbara Spieler, Lower School Music Teacher, works with the two second grade classes to create original operas based on popular children’s books. This year, students worked on librettos using themes from Mortimer by Robert Munsch and The Three Little Fish and The Big Bad Shark by Ken Geist and Julia Gorton.
The children read the books and then let their creativity take over to make the stories their own. Spieler said, “This is always a favorite activity for second grade students since it gives them a chance to combine music and drama in a student-driven production. The students make all the dramatic and musical decisions for the operas, from picking their characters, composing the arias and recitatives, and adding dramatic components.”
Parents, teachers, other students and staff enjoyed two productions of the operas.
From color fish swimming in circles to sea turtles sharing a seaweed snack, to doctors, army soldiers and even superheroes attempting to get a family to just go to sleep already, there was plenty of fun in the music studio. Every child helped in the creation of their characters and the storyline, ensuring that the moral of both stories was collaboration.
Bravo! Brava! To all of our talented second graders!
Check out KMOV’s coverage of a rehearsal.