Dear parent/guardians,

Welcome to the new 2026-2027 school year at Unsworth Elementary School! We are Mrs. Solomon and Mrs. Litshauer and we will be once again jointly running choir over the coming school year. Choir will be open to grades 2-5 with grade 2s invited to join on a trial basis as choir can feel like a big commitment for some of them.  Currently, we are planning to rehearse Mondays at lunchtime with Mrs. Litshauer and Thursdays with Mrs. Solomon. For weeks with a Pro-D on a Monday, Mrs. Solomon may have choir on the odd Friday at lunch instead. Your child(ren) has elected to join choir this term, and we are thrilled to have them as part of the group!

Choir is a yearlong commitment; however, we do give the students the option of stopping or joining the choir at the beginning of each term throughout the school year (September, January and March).  As choir is a team effort, we expect that students will attend all rehearsals unless they are away from school for either illness, appointments, or field trips. With regards to sports team practices scheduled during choir practices, this will be coordinated by the sports coach and us to find the best possible compromise ensuring that the students have access to both sports and choir.  We hope to instill a sense of dedication and commitment to choir. Baring absences due to illness or fieldtrips or sporting conflict, students will only be allowed to miss choir twice in the year (because they forget to come). It is also important that students attend choir regularly because they need to be present to learn the songs that we perform throughout the year. Each rehearsal we work on something different/new, so it is difficult for students to catch up if they consistently miss a practice.

To support learning, we will be regularly uploading music links on the “choir section” of the Unsworth Elementary webpage for choir members to access at home and practice. Please support your child(ren) with providing them opportunities to practice at home as we typically may not have enough time to sufficiently learn all the music during short lunch time rehearsals.

Our performances are during the different assemblies held throughout the year, and the students get a lot of performance opportunities to sing for the entire school. We may also have various community performances throughout the year that the students are encouraged to attend. Even if a student is unable to attend any community events outside the school day, we would still love them to be a member of choir. For most performances, the choir uniform is all black. Please send your child(ren) dressed in black for assembly and performance days unless otherwise specified (i.e. Pink for Pink Shirt Day etc.)

Emails will be sent home periodically with reminders of when the choir is to perform. If a child joins choir at the beginning of the year, however, decides to leave choir at any time, you may still receive emails regarding choir for the year. Please let us know if your child is in choir and you aren’t receiving any emails.

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:

Remembrance Day Assembly- November 10th 10:30 am

Winter Concert for Parents- December TBA

Further performance dates will be sent out later.

We are very much looking forward to working with the choir this year are we hope your child(ren) will have as much fun singing with their peers as we have teaching them!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Mrs. Solomon directly at lauren_solomon@sd33.bc.ca or Mrs. Litshauer at chelsea_litshauer@sd33.bc.ca

Sincerely,

Mrs. Solomon (MMus, MMus, BEd.)

Unsworth Music Teacher (Wed-Fri)