Meet Me at Morning Sing
by Becky Rodia, Senior Editor

Music starts the day at a pre-K-3 school that's in tune with the community.

The morning we arrived at Mount Lebanon School in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, was filled with anticipation. Parent volunteers set up folding chairs around the perimeter of the gym/auditorium, leaving most of the room open and inviting as a dance floor waiting for the tapping of happy feet.

More parents –- as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and younger siblings of Mount Lebanon students –- arrived. Families staked out seating areas with a good view of the stage. Friends and neighbors called greetings to each other across the spacious room. Toddlers ran to the cleared center of the room to enjoy the wide-open expanse that was perfect for running, skipping, or just gleefully waving their arms. Kids were being kids and families were being families on this Friday morning at Mount Lebanon School.

At 8:20 a.m., the students began filing into the room. Within the span of a few minutes, the expanse of the gym floor was filled with the entire student and staff population of this pre-K-3 school.

A small group of teachers stood beside the stage, tuning guitars and warming up. One teacher even had a banjo. Another sat down at the piano.

And then, the students and families of Mount Lebanon School did the extraordinary, community-affirming thing they do every Friday morning before turning to the business of the school and work day. They began to sing.

Move your feet to the beat. Mount Lebanon School's weekly Morning Sing went on for the next half hour, led by a small knot of teachers at the front of the room. Second-grade teacher Connie Mackey played the piano, while first-grade teacher Mary Skiffington played guitar and emceed the event, introducing the next songs and keeping everybody focused with a call-and-response management technique ("Are you ready-ready?" "Yes, we're ready-ready!") sung to simple musical phrases.

In addition to rollicking renditions of patriotic and folk songs, we enjoyed a solo by a girl who sang in Korean and a tune sung by a trio of boys. And we couldn’t help jumping to our feet when P.E. teacher Kathy Erickson got on stage to conduct "Miss Kathy's Orchestra," a movement activity in which Kathy cued groups of people in various parts of the room to stomp their feet, wiggle their hips or wave their arms to the accompaniment of Rossini's William Tell overture.

When Morning Sing had ended and the Mount Lebanon students were back in their classrooms, a few families who had young children stayed behind so the kids could play some games with Kathy.

"These children are going to be Mount Lebanon students in a year or two," said principal Marti Hunt. "It's great that their parents bring them to Morning Sing. They're becoming familiar with the school building, and with Kathy and some of the other teachers."

Elements of a community. Mount Lebanon calls itself a school community, and that community has a strong showing in every aspect of school life, beginning with the way the building is laid out. To get almost anywhere in Mount Lebanon School, you have to walk right past the library, which stretches the length of one hallway, with no walls or doors to separate it from anybody who might want to wander through.

And the students do wander through. On the day we visited, students from all grades were visiting the library to sign a congratulatory banner for librarian Ann Smith, who'd just won the Paraprofessional of the Year award from the New Hampshire Educational Media Association. Kindergarten and first-grade classes have scheduled times at which they visit the library, but all students are free to check out a book any time they're passing by. Even Mount Lebanon parents are invited to check resources out of the library.

We witnessed quite a bit of community-building in Ethel Weinberger's kindergarten room, where Pat Howe's third-graders were interviewing her kindergartners.

"Our third-grade and kindergarten partnerships will become trios in a few months, when we go to a farm and meet our pen pals, who are fifth-graders from New York," Ethel explained.

The interviews the third-graders were conducting on the day of our visit would be written up as autobiographies of the kindergartners, which would be sent to the fifth-graders in New York, so the students could get to know each other before meeting at the farm.

"The farm trip is the culmination of our students' involvement with the Heifer Project, a program that we joined to help raise money to purchase a farm animal for a needy family," Ethel said.

These third-grader-kindergartner pairs were certainly taking the opportunity to get to know each other. We heard a few kindergartners taking charge of the interview: "I like cats the best, and dogs second. Write it down!"

We also saw third-graders coaxing their kindergarten charges through the process: "You said you like your teddy bear. Does your bear have a name?" "I'm going to take your picture now, so smile!"

Taking charge of learning. Principal Marti Hunt is pleased with the high level of responsibility and initiative found among Mount Lebanon's students. "We're talking about five- to nine-year-olds," she reminded us. "But these children know what needs to be done, and we promote that within the building. We want the children assuming responsibility for their learning."

These kids are willing to take on a great deal of responsibility indeed. After enjoying an in-class visit from a research scientist, Mary Davidson's second-graders wrote a letter to the local paper, explaining what they had learned and thanking the visitor. Now that's what we call taking responsibility. It even has a bonus tie-in to "real-world" learning!

A supportive atmosphere. Getting the kids to take charge of their learning is a feat that's accomplished with the diligent help of a school staff that truly works as a team.

"I think this school works because every single staff member is invested in making it work," Marti told us. "I don't hear people saying, 'I'm not responsible for this' or 'I'm not going to touch that.'

"I think we're really blessed with a supportive community," she said. "And I think that permeates the atmosphere in the building. If the teachers feel taken care of, then it’s easier for them to take care of the kids."

And one can hardly overlook the terrific parent support Mount Lebanon School receives. The PTO's fund-raisers have provided the money to buy an alphabet book for every incoming kindergartner, as well as tickets for first- through third-graders to attend a performance at the Lebanon Opera House.

Mount Lebanon kindergarten parents also stay involved by participating in PALS: Parent Advocates for Literacy in the Schools. PALS is a family literacy program in which students bring books home to read with their families. After reading together, families have questions about the book, new words to discuss, and a related activity to do. Some families read and discuss one PALS book every day, whereas other families take longer. The important thing is that everybody's reading.

Songs of joy. And, of course, Mount Lebanon parents are involved in Morning Sing. Before and after the tuneful get-together, we found ourselves surrounded by parents eager to give us their opinion of the weekly event.

"This is a joyful experience," said Cathy Perryman, who had one child currently attending Mount Lebanon, as well as two others who had already graduated from the school. "It's great for the kids and the whole school community, but speaking as an adult from outside the school, I leave here feeling happy."

We left Mount Lebanon School feeling happy, too –- happy about the inviting library decorated with original artwork by children's authors who had visited the school, happy about the lively classrooms that were practically wallpapered with top-notch student work, and happiest of all about the enthusiastic kids and energetic teachers who started their day with music and left us with a song in our hearts.