I feel lucky when I’m asked to present about my passion for creative and student-centred music education. Working with Doug Friesen is always the best.

JLPS’s first full onstage concert…ever! I can’t even. During this fall’s music classes my primary students and I made magic happen. We walked to our local Toronto Music Gardens and learned about the music of J.S. Bach. Then each of the 7 classes chose a different Bach melody and took it on a rollercoaster ride. We remixed it. We added body percussion, lyrics to notes, mallet/ukulele/percussion parts, and arranged our new pieces. Students chose their performance instruments. Then we rehearsed, discussed, and rehearsed some more. Students’ voices made all of our musical and concert decisions. We set performance goals and, dear audience, we met them! What a show! When we reflected together on our concert each class told me that they can’t wait to perform again – they’re begging for a concert this spring! They loved being celebrated. Thank you JLPS community!

Introducing…JLPS School Singers! Our Gr. 2-5 choir is such a fun ensemble! They were excited to be “hired” to sing at our Dec. assembly and even did a spur of the moment 2nd tune. Something I noticed about them and our School Band…no sheet music. We take the music stands off the keyboards. We make up our own songs and arrangements so it’s all in our magical music minds!

My oldest students often pair up with JLPS’s youngest students for reading buddies and this year I added the idea of Strumming Buddies. The big and littles sing and strum together and it’s all kinds of magic.

Joy Lapps-Lewis returned to JLPS this year to help us set up our very own panyard. At our November assembly she performed for the entire school community, then she met with a Gr. 8 set-up crew and helped us prepare our pans, and in the afternoon she led workshops for the Gr. 7 and 8 students. We learned that in a panyard there is a role for everyone and that it is important to bring your whole self to the space. I will be sure to pass on what I learned to other JLPS students!

I was happily honoured to present a “Fiddling For All” workshop at this year’s Ontario Music Educator’s Association Conference. I also got to catch up with/make new music teacher friends, learn from other presenters, and even tried DJing!

BoluSings is a 15-year-old singer/songwriter from just outside toronto and we at JLPS think she’s wonderful (just like her manager/mother, Sibu). At our first assembly of 2022/23 she played with us as we sang our JLPS School Song (School Band members taught it to her moments before showtime) and then we all sang with her as she performed her song, “Just Breathe.” Gr. 4-8s will continue to work with Bolu in the New Year as we prepare for our February concert.

One of my favourite ways of getting to know students (or anyone, really) is to ask them about their favourite song…but this year we started by discussing favourite sounds. (I’ve also changed our 3x a year “Sharing Music from Home” to “Sharing Sounds from Home” and student performances are creative and brilliant.)

Some answers on this bulletin board: the sound of fries sizzling, the sound of my Grandfather snoring, the sound of a boiling kettle, the sound of my dog’s footsteps, the sound of laughter, the sound of a basketball swooshing. I have 300 student answers and wish I could share them all!

Over 100 students went on walking excursions with me to explore Toronto’s Music Garden. I played us through the 6 dances in Bach’s Suite No. 1 which inspired the Garden’s architecture. My seven primary classes are taking Bach melodies and creating lyrics, body percussion dances, and instrumental accompaniment for our “Bach Remix” concert later in the year.

I was asked to submit videos for this CNMN project highlighting JLPS’s creative music learning and I am so thankful for the opportunity to celebrate my students! Please feel free to contact me if you ever want to come into our music room to play, listen, and learn. Katherine.Fraser@tdsb.on.ca

Sector Focus Resources: Creative Music in Education