Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Can't sleep

Okay, so it's 3:15 am and I woke up with an idea for our trip, and of course now I can't go back to sleep. I've been looking online for resources for teaching the recorder at the orphanage. I found some sheet music for some simple songs that I downloaded and printed. And now I'm even running through a script in my head for lesson plans. I am using Rosetta stone to learn to speak Spanish (although not as much now as I need to be). So the scripts in my head are to teach music in Spanish. I need to learn some new words. And make some note cards.
We found some recorders online for about $2 each. Much cheaper than I had expected. I know they won't be the greatest, but in a week's time, there's no telling what most of them will look like anyway. It's just meant to be an introduction to music. That's how most of us band nerds got our start, isn't it? :-)
I've also got images of visual aids going through my head. The first thought is obviously going to be posterboard, but that would be kinda hard to pack on a plane. We may have to use huge sheets of paper that we can roll up or fold into our suitcase. I'll have to think about that some more. I wonder what the Spanish version of "FACE" and "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge" is? See why I am losing sleep?
I also have to consider how each child is going to be able to keep their own recorders separate. I thought about making little bags for them with elastic around the top to keep them closed. But a hundred of them?????? I looked up a map for the N1H1, and there are some cases of it down there, so we need to be mindful of that.
What else???? Oh-I wanted to do a t-shirt project, too. But I'm not doing so well with coming up with a project that I am happy about. I tested a tye dye project with a spray-on fabric paint, but didn't like the results. The next thing that I may try is to use a large stencil (star, heart?) and spray paint around it so that the shape is left clean with paint around it. Then they can use fabric markers to further decorate the shirts.
You know, logically I know that all of this planning and sleep deprivation will probably end up futile anyway. Last year, we only ended up making it through two partial rotations. The first year, we made it through every day, so we need to be ready. My thought is that even if we don't get to all of the rotations, we can still teach the music to the kids that want to do it during play time.
So homework for the next couple of days is to do some music translations; go through my fabric and decide if making the bags is realistic; set aside a plastic tote to take to choir to collect toothpaste, etc; make note cards; test the t-shirt idea.
If there's anyone reading this, any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

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