They loved elbow tag. You pair up and link arms with two set aside as chaser and chasee. The chasee runs around and eventually links arms with someone. At that instant the person on the other end of the now three person chain becomes the chasee. If the chaser ever tags the other person, they immediately switch rolls. There are no superstars and everyone gets to play. It can go on for hours, and after Monday that's the only game we played. There would be a lull in the teaching and they would say, "Game?" I gave in a couple of times.We met on the third floor in the choir room which was a perfect set up for me. It had a sound system, and I was able to set up my laptop and a projector. I played music as they entered, and on Tuesday I went in to find one of the girls at the drum set. My first instinct was to tell her to get away from it, but something stopped me. That's when I noticed she was actually playing with the song I had on the system. Any time we had a break she was there "thump tat thump chink thump tat thump chink...."
Each day we prepared a song to share at Worship. Days One and Two I introduced them to my old friend "The Music Man". They love him as much as I do. Day Three we shared "You are My All in All". That's when God hit me with the inspiration.During a short break, I began to hear classical music. I looked up and this tiny 3rd grade girl was at the piano playing Mozart with drum set accompaniment (sort of). I looked at Sun Jin and raised my eyebrows. She raised hers and said, "You have an idea!" I had already thought of doing an interpretive movement to "Lord, I Lift Your Name On High," and I said, "What if...what if...what if we did it live? No CD?" So, that's what we did. We formed our own third grade band. Both the girls were excited, and we added one of the boys on violin. The pianist took the music home and returned Friday with it mostly memorized.
Surprisingly, I haven't gotten to do a lot of musical direction here. So, I was thrilled to say "Hana, Dul, Set, Net" and lead these three children in the introduction. They watched me closely and adjusted like pros. It's a good thing Jewel doesn't have a computer or she might be a little nervous about her job. ;) The other kids did well, despite being 3 persons short. Imagine trying to do hand gestures and sing in a second language. They were a little quiet, but they did well. I was shocked when we didn't win. The other three teams had paid bands and singers on CD, but we were totally live and self-accompanied. I was very proud.
And just like that, it was over. They evacuated the building leaving me alone with one left over Krispy Kreme donut. I will miss their smiles...their attentive stares...their laughter...and that cute way they said, "Teacher?" I saw the pianist later today. She was at the hagwan where I'm teaching a bible study. She smiled when she saw me... That's what you do when you've played in a band together...
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