Concert Etiquette and Trivia Slides

 

My district recently hosted a performance of a youth orchestra from the area.  Elementary and middle school students from all the district's schools were in attendance--all the orchestra students plus other students not in orchestra.  I wasn't sure how students would do with the time before the concert started, waiting for students from all the schools to arrive and be seated, and I wasn't sure how much preparation classroom teachers would be doing in the area of concert etiquette, so I had an idea.  I wanted to create a series of slides that could be running on loop before the concert that included a slide welcoming the audience members, concert etiquette, information on the youth orchestra, and orchestra trivia.  For the trivia, I was imagining multiple choice questions, like what you'd see in a movie theater before the movie starts where the wrong answers disappear one by one.

Using Google Slides, I came up with a presentation that matched just what I had in mind.  I used different color backgrounds for each category of slides (trivia/etiquette/youth orchestra info).  In Google Slides, when you go to "Share" and then "Publish to the Web," it gives an option to auto-advance slides every 3 seconds.  That was fine for most of the slides, but others had more text and needed longer before advancing.  To solve that, I just duplicated the slides with extra text (sometimes a couple of times), ensuring they would be visible longer before advancing to the next slide.  There is also a box to check to "Restart the slideshow after the last slide" so it plays on a loop.

Trivia questions included:

• What does Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik translate to in English?
• How many symphonies did Beethoven write?
• What are the names of the two types of bass bows?
• A symphony orchestra is made up of which group(s) of instruments?
• Which string instrument reads alto clef?
• What is the name of the white stick that conductors use to conduct music?

To create more trivia questions, just duplicate the initial slide with the question and type in the new question/choices and add an image.  Then, duplicate that slide and delete one of the wrong answers.  Keep duplicating and deleting a wrong answer until you're left with only the correct answer.  I chose to add some additional information in a text box once the correct answer was revealed as well.

Concert etiquette included tips on being silent while the orchestra is performing, applauding after each piece, and staying in seats during the concert (or leaving between pieces if necessary).

• Concert etiquette and trivia template (Google Slides)

Feel free to make a copy and update to meet your needs!

100 Notes for the 100th Day of School

 

I teach at two elementary schools, and the 100th day of school is a pretty big deal, especially for the younger grades.  I'm always looking for ways to embed orchestra into the school culture, so I've made a tradition of playing 100 notes on my violin for the 100th day of school.  Depending on how much time I can spare that day, I'll pop into as many classrooms as I can to ask if students would like to hear 100 notes on my violin and then play what I've prepared.  I look for a piece with fast notes so it doesn't take long and then count 100 notes and write in a mark to stop there :)

Then, since COVID, I started recording a short video and sharing that with teachers.  That has worked our really well, as I can't be at both schools at the same time, and my schedule doesn't always allow me to visit all the classrooms in the school that I am at that day.  This way, teachers can share my video at a time that works best for them plus more students can get introduced to me and hear some violin music.

Some pieces I've played excerpts from in the past:

• Pachelbel Canon in D (the fast bit in the middle)
• Bach--E Major Preludio, G minor Presto, G Major Cello Suite Prelude
• Bohm Moto Perpetuo
• Rimsky-Korsakov Flight of the Bumblebee

My script is basically:

"Happy 100th day of school!  My name is ___ and I teach orchestra at (name of schools).  To help celebrate, I thought I would play 100 notes on my violin for you.  This is (name of piece) by (composer)

[play piece]

And that was 100 notes!  Have a wonderful day!"

The whole thing takes less than a minute.  There's one teacher at my school who likes to have her stopwatch going while I play to tell her students how long it took me to play those 100 notes--they're pretty impressed!  There are always students who I see in the hallway later who tell me they really enjoyed my 100 notes too :)