After-school Choir Club grows at Thornton Elementary

Our music teacher, Kai, took on the challenge of starting an after-school Choir Club for our 3-5 grade students. Kai has grown the choir club from a small group of about 15-20 to a group of 40 students over the past few years. Kai also focuses on including the diverse languages and cultures of our school in the songs they perform - it has been so amazing to see our students celebrating each other's heritage and singing in Pashto, Spanish, and English, and learning new genres of music they may have never known about before. Additionally, Kai makes choir and choir performances accessible for our students with different abilities, including our Multilingual Learners to students with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. The Thornton Elementary Choir is such a beautiful representation of how people from different abilities, cultures, languages, and backgrounds can come together to support each other, work hard, and create something more beautiful together.

For the upcoming Thornton Elementary Choir performance:

ThorntonElementaryChoirPresentsWinterWonders.pdf

Not only has Kai created such a beautiful choir with choir performances that fill our gym with families, but Kai is taking their support of our students to the next level by working to fundraise with community partners to provide the opportunity for the choir to attend the Elementary School Music Festival at Elitch Garden. Our students have never had the opportunity to attend this amazing festival due to the high cost per student and our inability to fund this opportunity as a school. Kai has not let these barriers get in the way and is starting a fundraising initiative so our students can access this amazing opportunity that they otherwise would not be able to attend.

For those interested in supporting the Thornton Elementary Choir:

ThorntonElementaryChoirSponsorshipLetter.pdf

We are so lucky to have such an amazing music teacher who is passionate about equity and engaging and empowering our students to reach their highest potential!

This story exemplifies our ELEVATE Focus Area: Diverse Learning. Sharing stories of how students receive engaging learning experiences and the focused-attention they need through appropriate student-to-staff ratios and varied programming.