Lynn Kleiner's Music Box
For the complete story, music and video of a performance, go to www.lynnkleinersmusicbox.com to DOWNLOADS and VIDEOS. Orff instruments can easily accompany this story, even Music Rhapsody's one octave colored glockenspiels would be great for a glissando when the clowns pop up. Children can also easily play from high C to low C, one note at a time, when they go down. A bordun can be played on a lower Orff instrument for an easy accompaniment to the Little Clown song, playing the biggest C and G on the beat. Jingle Bells can accompany when the clowns dance. For the performance on the video, I played a keyboard on a vibraphone setting for the bell like quality, like a celeste, for the little clown. The children knew both songs very well before they ever heard the story since Little Clown and "And He Dances" are ones we use for our pitch matching in our weekly music classes.
The classroom teachers were very supportive in organizing the making of the elf hats and clown collars as well as the toymaker's costume. The children loved presenting the story to the parents. Because it is so short, it is very age appropriate. If a longer version is desired, have the clowns pop up with other kinds of faces such as scared, angry, surprised, etc. You can have a great discussion with the kids on emotions in telling the story. The more the chidlren exagerate their faces, the more entertaining for the audience.
Several Music Rhapsody teachers are presenting this story for their holiday performance. One of our teachers is making the collars out of over sized coffee filters. I hope they will share some tips of how they introduced this to their classes. I'm so happy we were able to share Elizabeth's school performance with Music Box members!
