"Kids love instruments, and smiling faces abound when I mention we will be playing them on any given day in music! I am a music teacher for kindergarten through second grade students. My students are very enthusiastic and most of the parents in our community are supportive of our school. The school is very multicultural, and considered to be at moderate poverty level. Hundreds of students come through my program each year and would benefit from this purchase, along with future students, for years to come!
Since the students enjoy playing instruments so much, I try to incorporate them and many Orff techniques as much as possible. I adapt many arrangements, as well as create new arrangements to fit the instruments we have available since music is not given any budget to work with on a yearly basis. While I do my best to make things work out, additional instruments like rain sticks, hand bells and Boomwhackers would be very accessible for the students while helping to teach a large variety of basic concepts, and would help to take our playing and creativity to a new level.
In this case, I do not need one large item, but would see the most need to be, and benefit to come from, several smaller items. For students in the younger grades, playing rhythm instruments in just about every music class to help establish a sense of steady beat is key. The guiro and shakers I have requested would be very fun and work perfectly for this purpose. After the students are familiar with steady beat, I like to add pitched instruments so that they can play songs together. This is where hand bells and hand bell cards would be terrific. They work well in small hands, and can be identified by color, letter, and sound. The Boomwhackers and mallets I have requested would help in the same way. The game and resource books could supplement our program with some more fun activities, and the rain sticks would work great in talking about world music and improvising our very own rainstorm!
Your help will provide items that will allow our students to reinforce their idea of steady beat and play musical arrangements together. They will be able to play and harmonize with familiar songs, and compose new songs of their own. The instruments along with the game and resource books will help to further the students' excitement about music, and be an invaluable addition to our available music room supplies. All of the items will be used by hundreds of students coming through my door each week, benefiting them in their time here, and allowing them to go on to the upper grades with an even better musical basis, and being one of many factors that keeps their interest high and makes them want to keep music in their lives for many years to come!
My students need unpitched percussion instruments to work on their rhythm skills, pitched instruments to be able to play and improvise music together, and a game and some music books to add some fun new ways to learn important concepts.
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