Creating A School Song For Head O’ Meadow

By Eliza Hallabeck

Head O’ Meadow third and fourth grade students worked with singer/songwriter Brian Chevalier on Tuesday, October 2, to create a school song that will also highlight character attributes the district has determined are important for a safe school environment.

Mr Chevalier, according to PTA program Chair Cricket Carpenter, travels from school to school holding writing and musical  workshops to create school songs based on their character values. At Head O’ Meadow, Mr Chevalier was supplied with Newtown’s Core Character Attributes Tree and the district’s CARES — Cooperative, Assertive, Responsible, Empathetic, and Self-Control — model to help him and the third and fourth grade students at the school brainstorm lyrics for the school’s soon-to-be song.

One by one, Mr Chevalier visited classrooms and explained the process of writing lyrics for verses and choruses to students.

“The first thing I like to do is say what are the facts or the details I would like to have,” said Mr Chevalier to students in third grade teacher Chrissie Pierce’s class on Tuesday.

Mr Chevalier asked the students to brainstorm different words they would use to describe their school while keeping the character attributes in both Newtown’s Core Character Attributes Tree and the CARES model.

“What are the biggest things you would want to say about your school?” Mr Chevalier said. The students listed the words “caring,” “sharing,” “a wonderful place,” and “cooperative,” among many others.

Mr Chevalier explained he would go home Tuesday night to work on using all of the third and fourth graders words to create a school song that would be unveiled at an assembly on Wednesday.

Head O’ Meadow Principal Barbara Gasparine said the idea to combine character attributes with a school song started last year when the school focused on sharing and explaining the district’s Core Character Attributes with students.

“It was the perfect blend of what we wanted to do,” said Ms Gasparine, “focusing on character and having a school song as an outcome.”

When the idea was first brought up with Ms Carpenter in the summer, she began searching online for possibilities and discovered Mr Chevalier. Ms Carpenter said Mr Chevalier’s program has a lot of value. Head O’ Meadow lead teacher Jennifer Meyers, who is also the school’s safe school climate specialist, said Wednesday, when the song would be unveiled to the students, will also focus further on character attributes.

“It’s a day designated to build good character,” said Ms Meyers.

In each classroom students will have activities that will highlight good character, said Ms Meyers.