Happy 200th Birthday to the Star Spangled Banner!

Every year, the 4th graders spend the month of September studying the Star Spangled Banner. We rotate through 10 stations, learning about the history of the poem, Francis Scott Key, and the meaning of the lyrics (you can buy the station packet from www.musicbulletinboards.net). When they are finished, they take a test on the station information and also have a singing test. Normally my students aren't excited about singing tests, but this one is different for some reason. Parents tell me about their kids singing it at home, I hear it in the hallways, and they even ask me if they can sing it for me in class!

This year, I surprised the 4th graders by arranging for them to sing the anthem at a home volleyball game after their test (which also happened to be the same week as the anthem's 200th birthday AND we sang on 9/11!). It was awesome! However, I forgot to bring my camera to take a picture. :( 

As I said earlier, this year was the 200th anniversary of the Star Spangled Banner, so I spent a day with all of my classes discussing the history of it and doing different activities. For one activity, I put the students in groups with song strips containing the lyrics of the song that they had to put in order. Once they finished, each group had to sing the anthem for me. Other groups watched and listened to different versions of the Star Spangled Banner being performed and compared and contrasted them. Anthem was also my Word of the Week.

As you can tell, we were very busy in September! It's so fun to go to volleyball games and football games and catch one of my students singing along with the anthem.

Students completing the Star Spangled Banner song strips activity