After reading the previous post, you might ask, What does popcorn have to do with music?

There are a couple answers. One, the promise of a Friday popcorn party can add a little motivation to good behavior in class throughout the week. Two, one of the songs (well, a text with rhythm — no melody) in Amy’s music curriculum is actually about making popcorn. Here’s a performance (yeah, that’s my wife way up there in the air!):

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(If you’re using a blog reader, you might want to go to our blog to see the video that’s included above.)

I didn’t mention this in the previous post — but I spent yesterday at Cochran Elementary School with Amy, participating in her classes and (during a couple classes) making some photos and videos. After a day with her at school, I wonder how in the world Amy does anything at the end of the day but come home and sleep. Lots of jumping, lots of energy, lots of talking and singing. When we came home, I wanted a nap (and took one).

As you would guess, Amy’s a great teacher, and her students like her very well. So do her colleagues. (So does her husband!)

What are these kids so captivated by? (Well, one of them appears to be interested in the camera, but I mean the rest.)

A hot oil popcorn maker, operated by a music teacher:

The popping process was “boring” for the first couple minutes (before the popping began), but after the first pop, there were lots of oo’s and ah’s and a few shh’s. They liked eating the popcorn, too. (No surprise there.) Some said it was the “most delicious popcorn” they’d ever had, and a few determined to buy a popcorn maker.

It’s said that air poppers are healthier than oil poppers, but Amy uses Canola, so it’s good fat. Here’s one more photo of the wonder of the popping popcorn:

The other ingredients of Good Times are cookies (we — mostly Amy — made 300 small chocolate chip cookies on Thursday evening), singing, a team competition to put notes in their proper places on a staff (you can see the staff on the floor behind Amy in one of the photos further up), and lots of jumping up and down (little kids like jumping up and down). The cookies were a big hit (“They’re so soft!” “They’re better than … Chips Ahoy!”)