Music becomes magical for my students when they are able to participate in "Mallet Madness" activities! I teach K-5 music in a low income, rural school district. My 560 students are very enthusiastic and talented! They love to sing and perform for their teachers and families. They use instrument playing to help develop awareness of rhythm, melody, form and mood in music.
"Mallet Madness" activities have become a hit in my music classroom - the students' faces light up as soon as they know they will be playing instruments while we sing! I have used Orff instruments to enhance grade-level literature, songs in our music texts, and to accompany classroom plays/musicals. We have a system where the students switch places every few minutes, allowing them to explore many different instruments during one class period. We use xylophones, temple blocks, metallophones, tone bells, and more. My goal is to acquire more of these instruments so that there is less down time for my students. They want to be able to play all of the time and not have to sit out at all - playing is so much more fun (and educational) than waiting! However, our classroom budget has not increased at all in the past 10 years because funds are just not available. Mallet instruments are very expensive - in fact, one of them would take most of the music budget for the year. Our community also suffered two devastating floods last year, resulting in damage to the schools and to many homes and businesses. Budget concerns have grown even more in the meantime.
To enhance our "Mallet Madness" unit, I would like to add one more soprano xylophone to our classroom "band". We have several lower sounding barred instruments and have been adding smaller instruments each year. The high pitched xylophone with removable bars would be such a nice addition for my students and our music classroom. It would balance our sound and allow us to explore an instrument that we have not had access to before.
Your help will make it possible for us to enhance our mallet activities in music class. Learning about the elements of music is so much fun when my students use "Mallet Madness"!
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