Middle Gate Elementary School fourth grade students performed in front of family and friends at their “Just Sing for Spring!” chorus concert on Monday, May 13.

Held at Newtown High School’s auditorium, the fourth grade chorus concert was directed by Middle Gate music teacher Tina Jones and featured songs of several different styles and genres.

Jones said that the concert was the culmination of everyone’s hard work and that she was extremely proud hearing them sing together.

“A lot of hard work went into this behind the scenes, and the excitement leading up to it was as great for me as it was for them,” Jones said. “They would practice on the playground. They’d even come over to the music room window and sing at me to show me they were practicing ... That’s the level of dedication that so many of them had.”

Family and friends cheered the chorus students on as they filed into the auditorium behind Jones. The students excitedly waved to the crowd as they walked past them before getting into position on stage.

The concert kicked off with the Middle Gate school song, “The Place for You and Me,” where Jones accompanied the chorus on piano. Afterwards, she officially introduced the performers to the audience before quickly going over concert etiquette and teasing all the “fun surprises” that they had in store. In between songs, Jones also made it a point to have different students walk to the front of the stage and introduce each song.

The sunny, breezy guitar production of “Los Colores De La Primavera” filled the auditorium next. Throughout this number, students waved around different colored strings whenever their assigned color was mentioned in the song. By the end, everyone waved their colors around together on stage, creating a wave of blue, purple, orange, and more.

Jones would make little quips at the end of every number and get the audience to laugh or beam with pride alongside her. They then transitioned into the traditional camp song, “One Bottle of Pop.” The performance started with everyone singing the same lyrics, but they later broke off into three groups singing different parts at the same time, which made for a delightfully chaotic experience.

The chorus jazzed things up with the following number, “Play That Music,” a song featuring trumpets that had all the students snapping, scatting, and bouncing along. They ended their performance with some of the students donning colorful animal print party hats and “playing” inflatable saxophones. These props were hidden in front of the first row of chairs, so it was a total surprise for the audience.

Jones and the students dedicated their next song to the school’s physical education teacher, Laura Cooper, who is retiring at the end of the school year. The song, “For Just a Little While,” was slow and sentimental, with lyrics reflecting on how the short time spent with a loved one was special.

At the end of the performance, a few students walked over to where Cooper was sitting in the crowd to hand her flowers and other gifts. Jones, on behalf of her and her students, thanked Cooper for her years of hard work as an educator before the room broke out in applause for their retiring teacher.

The chorus closed out their main set with “Just Sing” from the movie Trolls World Tour. As Jones told The Bee after the show, this was one of the students’ favorite songs in the whole set list. Students smiled and clapped along to the upbeat pop tune as their infectious energy got the whole crowd to give them a standing ovation.

This led to them performing something special for their encore, “Proud,” another high energy song that was also a fan favorite for the chorus. The students could not stop smiling as they made goofy poses and sang about embracing everyone’s differences head on. Their bubbly and joyful performance resulted in another standing ovation from the crowd.

After the show, Jones beamed to The Bee about how proud she was of everyone.

“They’re so resilient. They’ve grown so much,” Jones said. “Seeing all of their sweet, smiling faces … it just makes me feel so happy inside; seeing them like that and hearing their beautiful voices.”

Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.