Emma’s Field Trip to Orchestra Hall

I went to Emma’s field trip to the Minneapolis Orchestra Hall this week. Cousin Titan (who is now in her preschool class) was also there. The three of us had a lot of fun!

They run an amazing operation there. I counted at least four field trips all going on simultaneously, which took an amazing amount of traffic control.

There were a LOT of kids there from Salem. I think they had all of the preschool classes and the kindergarten class. I hadn’t anticipated the amount of work that is!

The kids got to go on stage for a personal concert. The gal who did the warm up (below) taught them to say ‘Bravo!’ when the clapped. That turned out to be one of my favorite parts, as the kids yelled it after every single note was played. The orchestra has never had such a good audience.

Each person in the orchestra came out and explained how his or her instrument works (highlighting some varied levels of skills with children). The percussionist and the harpist were the big hits of the show. My favorite was the oboist who played amazingly beautifully. We got a stern and passionate lesson on the difference between xylophones (which have wooden keys) and glockenspiels (which have metal keys), and were told that “the children’s books have it all wrong”.

Afterward, the kids got to go to the rehearsal room where they got to try to play several instruments:

…a drum (Emma’s favorite)…

…a violin…

…a cello…

…and (of course) a glockenspiel.

It was wonderful to get to spend the time with Emma and Titan. Titan is a great kid and he and Emma have become best friends, which I hope will last a lifetime for them. Both of them were VERY well behaved, which made me proud.

Swine Flu School Shutdown

Emma’s school was shut down due to the Swine (H1N1) Flu this week.

Per the Stillwater Gazette:

Salem Lutheran School in Stillwater has been shut down through the rest of the week because of a high number of students sick with the H1N1 flu.

“Basically, for the last three weeks we’ve had high numbers during the week,” said principal Terry Graf. “Not as high as yesterday. We were up to 27 who were out absent, and for us, that’s a good chunk of our school. We did this as a precaution because we were concerned about it being such a big jump.”

Graf announced at the end of the school day Tuesday that school would be closed for the rest of the week, and would open again Monday.

“Hopefully, it gives a chance for everyone to get better,” he said.

Staff at the school will be sanitizing and disinfecting classrooms and common areas during the three-day break.

The school, which has 144 students, had averaged about 10 to 18 absences during the last few weeks, he said. He said students in lower grades have been most affected.

“We don’t know that they are all H1N1,” Graf said. “But we do know that we have a number of confirmed H1N1 cases from our kids.”

He said the state also requires schools that aren’t able to confirm if cases are H1N1, to count them as cases, to be safe.