Dear First Grade Parents,
While we wish we could all gather onstage for Juniper Street Elementary’s annual holiday concert, we are excited to see your children shine on screen. Since most of the recital will be pre-recorded, we are asking you to film your child singing “Here Comes Santa Claus” (Zuma Sunset remix). Please complete the following QUICK and EASY steps no later than tomorrow. Remember to have fun with this, be creative, and honor what makes your family unique!
Please have your child wear the clothing that corresponds to their grade’s assigned costume color. Since your children are in FIRST grade, they should be wearing apple frost green. (No logos or writing, please.) If you don’t have an apple frost green t-shirt, don’t worry. The hex code is #90EE90 so you can easily find the right fabric dye and make your own using the immersion method.
Hair that is shoulder length or longer should be worn in the style of the Hunger Games Katniss Braid. There are plenty of YouTube tutorials available that will tell you exactly what to do. You’ve got this, Juniparents!
You’ll find the lyrics to our arrangement of “Here Comes Santa Claus” in the First Grade Songbook folder in my Google Classroom. For your convenience, I’ve recorded a demo video featuring the music and accompanying hand motions we’ve been practicing on our class Zooms. Parents: We ask that you learn them, too, so that you can give your children visual cues from BEHIND the camera.
Speaking of that camera, we are asking parents for a quick 45 seconds of aerial footage. If you don’t have easy access to a ceiling fan and a suspension harness, be sure to let us know ASAP so we can make other arrangements.
You can record the video with your iPhone, iPad or Android device, so long as you hold it sideways (LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION!) positioned at an 84-degree angle. I’ve posted to the class portal several photos showing the desired setup of the camera in relation to your child and their laptop or tablet.
Please upload three files (3):
- an audio recording of your child singing “Here Comes Santa Claus”
- a video of your child lip syncing the song as they perform the hand motions
- aerial B-roll
Once you are satisfied with the recordings, label them with your child’s first and last name, grade and pod. For example: “Sagittarius Goldberg, 1B.” Audio files should be emailed to yours truly. The video files can be uploaded directly to our shared classroom folder in Google Drive.
For consistency’s sake, all furniture and objects visible in the background of the videos should be arranged in a dodecahedron.
Because we want to capture the magic of this holiday concert for the school yearbook, we ask that you download the 1-2-3 Smile app, and post 7-9 GRLs of your child lip syncing to “Here Comes Santa Claus.” We’d also like two selfie-type images (PORTRAIT ORIENTATION) of your child wearing their favorite Covid mask and (optional) blue light filtering glasses.
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. The Juniper Mommies’ Tech Text WhatsApp group is also a great resource for troubleshooting. Let us know if you still need to be added. (Daddies are welcome, too!)
That’s it…easy peasy lemon squeezy! Thank you SO MUCH, and I can’t wait to “see” you there.
Yours in merriment,
Ms. Roberta
