Sayville Elementary Schools Follow Flat Mozart on Adventures

Lincoln Avenue Music teacher Christine Cirillo orchestrated a new project for the music students in all three elementary schools. Borrowing the premise familiar to the students from “The Flat Stanley Project,” which follows the title character as he travels to different places and learns about different people and cultures,  Mrs. Cirillo collaborated on “The Flat Mozart Project” with her Music colleagues Mrs. Amy Baron, and Mrs. Kristi Woerner for the Sayville elementary students.

“Every class, Kindergarten through Fifth, in all three elementary schools,” Mrs. Cirillo explained, “did a composer study on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart just before spring break.  Mozart began his musical career when he was five years old, the same age as our youngest students in Sayville Schools.  Not only did we learn about his music, but we learned that Mozart spent the majority of his short life on the road performing and composing all over Europe for royalty.  Sometimes his travel would keep him away from home for years at a time. 

“So this year for spring break we sent Mozart on traveling adventures with our students.  We called it The Flat Mozart Project!  In school, the Kindergarten and First grade classes showed Flat Mozart what a school looks like, because young Mozart never got the chance to go to one.  Our Second through Fifth graders even created digital images of Flat Mozart traveling to places all around the world.  The project continued over spring break as Flat Mozart went home with every child.  Some families traveled and brought Flat Mozart with them, other families stayed home and showed him around town.  Some even emailed him to a distant relative or friend and had them travel with Flat Mozart.  Everyone who participated took pictures of their adventures and added them to the project.” 

To replicate the journals young Mozart kept in the 1700s about the people he met and the sights he saw on his travels with his father, Mrs. Cirillo created a project webpage and twitter account for The Flat Mozart Project. The twitter feed is the Sayville Elementary Schools’ version of Flat Mozart's travel journal.