Writing a Christmas song with their classmates and seeing things like Elvis Presley’s old car were on the agenda for fourth-grade students at Pleasant View Elementary School (PVES) on December 18. The group traveled to Nashville to tour the County Music Hall of Fame (CMHOF), a field trip planned and organized by the school’s music teacher, Margaret Hampton.
As part of music class, Hampton taught her students about the structure of songs, and then had them each write one of their own. At the CMHOF, professional singers/songwriters (Doug and Telisha Williams from Wild Ponies) selected their favorite songs and put them to music.
The chosen songwriters from PVES were: Jackie Anne Cantrell (Pet Rabbit), Emma Wayne (Softball), Cloe Wilson (Me & You), Jenna Stampfly (Trust in Me), Lacey Barber (Cooper), Ayda Leffew (Halloween), Carly Batson (Being A Friend), Tatum Henry (Fun Sunny Day), Daycee Hutchings (Roxie), Emma Shearon (Leaving 4th Grade), Destiny Dearfield (Mom), and Landon Hindman (Interplanetary Travel).
For the past 17 years, Hampton has had her 4th-grade students write songs and submit them to the CMHOF. For the past four, the songwriters have been coming out to the school to sing the student’s songs for them. This year was particularly special, as the students were able to tour the museum and partake in a unique song-writing session right in Nashville.
