SUPERIOR — Students at Four Corners Elementary School spent a week creating musical odes to things that matter to them — snowmen, the Burstrom trail, Pattison Park, kindness and more — with the help of musician Charlie Maguire. They wrapped it up with a concert in the gymnasium Friday, Dec. 2, a pre-Christmas gift that will be opened via video during their holiday concert.
Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
Fifth graders in Nicole Moon’s class put together the song “So Good!” to celebrate their annual maple sap harvest. There was even a section for students to pull twangy notes out of jaw harps, which were provided by Maguire.
“Forty gallons of maple sap makes a gallon of ‘liquid gold’ — Slide your finger around the pan like sugar in a bowl — AND IT’S SO GOOD!” they sang.
The first grade classes invited listeners to go down to Pattison Park with their song.
“See the quiet deer at Pattison Park,” they sang softly.
“See the noisy birds at Pattison Park,” they sang with gusto.
“Learning Lots” was the theme of the second graders’ composition, while the third graders sang about the many birds they found “Outside My Window.”
One fourth grade class focused on “Kindness,” while the other found their inspiration down the road at the “Four Corners Store,” complete with a line about shop dog Odie
Every year, the Four Corners PTA funds a weeklong artist in residence program. The school has welcomed puppeteers, an author, a stamp artist and more.
“It turns out to be amazing every time,” said family engagement coordinator Ellen Chicka. “We’ve never been disappointed.”
Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
She called Maguire, who came to the school through the
nonprofit education organization COMPAS
, “fantastic.”
“He’s so engaging and really willing to work with the kids and, I mean, it’s been really enjoyable,” Chicka said.
Maguire, who graduated from Northland College in Ashland and currently lives in the Twin Cities, was just as impressed with Four Corners.
“Coming from the cities, to have a school that has their own maple trees — their own sugar bush as Ms. Moon said — plus their own place to cook it … that’s pretty incredible to see. Not to mention the 55 acres of trails that they have here, too. I mean, man oh man, sign me up,” said Maguire, who spent some of his down time “trout typing” with a manual typewriter in addition to a fly fishing rod on the Brule River.
“At least I can take something home. I can take a little poem or a little thought, and that’s actually more than the average fly fisherman really, sometimes,” Maguire said.
Teachers brainstormed with students ahead of time to get ideas for what they wanted to write about. Then they worked with the musician to come up with the lyrics and craft the original songs.
“They learn how to put a song together,” said Maguire, who performed on “A Prairie Home Companion” for nine years. “And they realize that songwriting is real work. It’s a lot of fun, too, but these songs just don’t drop out of the sky.”
It’s a group project that involves research and finding the right words.
“I didn’t think when I first started doing this years ago that you could actually write songs out in the open like this. I’ve learned how to do it, and I’ve learned how to do it by saying every idea is good, but some fit a little better than others,” Maguire said.
On average, the musician visits four to six schools a year. He said he has given out jaw harps to at least 12,000 children.
The gift of music had an impact on the young songwriters. Chicka said many students have told her they asked for a harmonica for Christmas.
“I know we did a great thing when I hear that,” she said.
Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
Maria Lockwood / Superior Telegram
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