The First Grade Blues Band will play a gig at CSU San Marcos!!

We have been invited by a real-life Cal State San Marcos School of Education professor to perform in front of a live audience comprised of CSU college students and staff!

The 6 and 7 year olds that make up this First Grade Blues Band are on a roll and are ultra excited about it. This first road trip and gig will probably be in mid April. We will keep you posted, but don’t hold your breath for tickets. This will probably be a closed show for CSU insiders and bigwigs, band members immediate families, the Garrison Elementary Road Crew, and higher ups in the world of Garrison Elementary.

Here is our roadie at our latest practice. You should see how he teaches other kids how to write during our cooperative learning centers in class!

Taking the band on the road has really “upped the ante” for our band. That means our work is even more important than before, and we know we have to rehearse twice as hard. Here is a video of us rehearsing during recess.

We are a real live band and there’s no lip syncing or backing tracks; the kids make up the moves and we go over them until we “run out of gas”. For you beginning readers that means we do it until we’re exhausted, and have no more energy. It’s grueling, hard work, but hey, that’s show business! We’ve got another talent show at school on Monday and need to be ready.

Until Next Show,
The First Grade Blues Band.

Leave a Reply

Our Goal

Once we’ve used the music as a springboard to teach academic content standards, our goal is to take our work to completion by performing it onstage and recording it together in digital multitrack audio and video editing programs.

The students even learn how to operate programs like iMovie, Photoshop and Garage Band.

iMovie icon Photoshop icon GarageBand-icon

So far our performances have included playing a street fair, for a large audience of staff and students at the Cal State San Marcos College of Education and on local TV news and KPBS TV (watch these performances on our videos page). We're a real band, and we're learning and rocking! We have about ten songs in our repertoire.

For Your Further Interest

Check out these educational links, including Mr. Schwartz's approach to using fishing and hands-on science to motivate and engage students.

Social Connect

We invite you to use the Facebook & Twitter links above to get the very latest on our music and appearances.

Video: Sweet Home Chicago

Kids Like Blues Plays Sweet Home Chicago
Click video still to watch the Kids Like Blues Band music video, "Sweet Home Chicago."

Blues & Thematic Teaching


Click video still to view how our program works and details how we cover specific academic content standards.

In the News

We have been featured by US Dept. of Education, KPBS, and more. Click here to view what all the buzz is about.