GRANGER – The students of Hinckley Elementary School performed in a special musical production at the Highland High School auditorium Feb. 7. This show, portrayed as an opera, told the story of one fifth-grade student’s experience throughout his elementary school years.

“Diary of a Hinckley Kid” was created by Hinckley Elementary School music teacher Mike McClintock and all of his students. He said the idea of this show was inspired by a Cleveland Opera workshop he attended in 2007, which showed how a classroom of students could write and compose an opera.

“I approached the Cleveland Opera and asked about the possibility of doing a whole school opera unlike the normal one or two classrooms,” he explained. “I wanted to try to have 18 classrooms. And a project was born.”

McClintock recalled directing an opera starring his students in 2007 working with Eileen Moore, a former mentor for the now-defunct Cleveland Opera. Last school year, he contacted Moore asking her if she could help create another opera with the elementary school students.

“The idea of ‘Diary of a Hinckley Kid’ came about from conversations with staff members at Hinckley Elementary about how we can show a day in the life of our students,” McClintock said. “We had a meeting together back in August and determined which aspect of the school day each grade level would cover.”

Each scene of the show represented a different grade level. The kindergarten scene featured students singing about riding the bus to school for the first time. The first grade scene illustrated what happens at recess on the school playground. Second grade showed students taking a test. Third grade featured a lunchtime food fight in the cafeteria. The fourth grade scene told the story of one student who lost a library book. In the fifth grade scene, the students sang about the art, music and physical education classes. The final scene, depicting the narrator’s final diary entry, featured students singing about the joys of having a snow day. Each scene was separated by the narrator’s interludes.

Two productions of the show were performed that night. The first performance consisted of students with last names beginning with the letters A through L, while the second performance featured students whose last names began with M through Z. Hinckley Elementary School’s fifth-grade choir performed in both performances.

McClintock said he started this project so students could understand how a show is created from beginning to end.

“I hoped they learned about how hard work and dedication to a project and seeing it through from beginning to end pays off in the end,” he explained. “I wanted to provide an opportunity for all students to be on a stage and performing. It is like bringing a little piece of Broadway to Hinckley Elementary.”