Tips for Successfully Starting an Elementary Choir

Have you thought about starting an elementary choir, but just don’t know how?  What if I told you it’s not as overwhelming as it sounds?  When I first decided to start a 4th-5th grade honors choir, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into.  I decided to just do it and am so glad I did!  My choir sang all around our community, for the school district administrators, and most of the kids went on to join their middle school choirs.  The same tips and tricks that worked for me when I first started my choir, I want to share with you.

 

Just do it (as Nike says)

In all seriousness, just get over your nerves and do it.  The first thing I suggest is to announce to your students, parents, and the rest of the staff that you’ll be starting a choir.  I’d suggest launching your first choir practice either at the very beginning of the school year or right after Winter break, but that’s totally up to you.

Personally, I held my choir rehearsals from September through December.  I knew I wanted to take the kiddos to sing around town and Winter was the perfect time to take them caroling.

Once you decide to have an honors choir, decide a tryout date and when the rehearsals will be.  Then, send home a letter to the parents of the students who have made the choir.   In this letter, inform parents of the field trips you’ll be taking the students on, when the rehearsals will be, your expectations and excitement for having an honors choir, and your policy for students missing practices.

 

Plan, plan, and more plan

Just like how you plan out things in your classroom (like I talk about in this podcast episode), you’ll want to plan everything for your choir as well.  Plan out rehearsals from start to finish, when to hold rehearsals, where you’ll take them to perform, and what music they’ll be singing.

When it comes to picking out music for your students to perform, have them sing Christmas carols, go to your local music store, or utilize Amazon or any online sheet music store like
Virtual Sheet Music, Inc.

I fully believe that the more planning you do, the more prepared you’ll feel.  When your students come to choir, if they know the routine and the structure of rehearsals, you’ll notice how much more smoothly the time with your students will go.

 

When to have practice

You’re going to be pretty mind blown by this, but there are really only two options for when to hold rehearsals.  Are you ready for it?  (Drum roll please…)  You can hold rehearsals before or after school.  Yep, that’s pretty much it.

I chose to hold rehearsals before school because I noticed when I tried to have rehearsals after school, there were too many conflicts.  Your students are involved in extracurricular activities that usually meet sometime between after school and dinner time.  So, the easiest option for me was to hold 30 minute rehearsals before school one day a week.  What you choose is completely up to you.  Only you know your school, your students, and yourself.

Like I said, I had my choir rehearse from September through December.  You can have your choir practice for half of the year as well or go the entire school year.

 

How to hold a practice

Your rehearsals will be anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour.  During the rehearsal, you’ll start with a warm-up.  The warm-up will consist of different vocal activities to warm up your students voices.

After the warm-up, you’ll work on the music.  If you’re working on more than one piece, then cover different pieces of music each time you see your choir.  Then, before the rehearsal time ends, you’ll want to go over any announcements of upcoming performances, hand out permission slips, or discuss the song you’ll be working on the following week.

 

Where to take your choir to sing

There are several places you can take your choir to sing.  When I planned out where the students were performing, I scheduled out all the performances in one day.  For example, we went to the airport, then would go sing at the local bank, then would maybe eat lunch at a park, and then would wrap up the day by singing at our districts human resources building.

Other options include nursing homes, your partners of education (ours was a local bank), the local preschools, at a baseball game, or any other local establishments that would benefit from hearing children singing.

If you’re having your honors choir perform in December, you can even take them caroling around the neighborhood.   This is a great way for people who live around your school to know just how great your students are and gives those choir students such a huge sense of pride.

 

I’d love to hear from you.  Have you been wanting to start an elementary choir?  If you have or haven’t started one yet, I’d love to hear why.  I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below or share your thoughts on social media as you share this post.   

Also, I’d love for you to share this post or any of the resources on my website with a friend or colleague who you know NEEDS to see it.

P.S.  Are you feeling frustrated or stuck as an elementary music teacher?  Check out these free resources to help you teach elementary music with confidence!