My students need a variety of colored recorders as reward incentives for passing more difficult tests. They also need a class set of recorders.
$386 goal
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Hooray! This project is fully funded
Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month
This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because
it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.
I'm not sure that there is an elementary music classroom instrument more ubiquitous or infamous than the recorder. Everyone has seen or played a recorder at some point in their schooling and if they haven't they wish they had!
I'm fortunate to work with about 500 brilliant elementary students on a daily basis.
We go to a large urban school in a fairly low-income neighborhood. The vast majority of my students come from families where English is not their main medium for communication and yet they strive to excel in math and reading and many are fluent in both languages. Though my students come from a low SES background, they are innovative and creative, not letting boundaries stop them. Music gives my students an outlet to create and prosper and takes hold of their attention. Their eyes light up when they can take music making into their own hands and create something absolutely new.
My Project
These recorders would be a godsend for our music program and would give students something really motivating to work towards. To inspire students to advance in their recorder techniques I use a reward system not unlike traditional karate called Recorder Karate, where students earn "belts" if they can demonstrate proficiency of different concepts through playing tests. The tests get progressively harder as they learn new notes and songs. Each kid starts on a basic black recorder and if you know anything about kids you know that they love to accessorize and add color! If students could trade in their traditional black recorder for a colored recorder when they got to a certain level, I imagine that they would go crazy with excitement. A colored recorder would be a humongous inspiration. When they got a new color they could "donate" their black recorder to the music program and I could give it for free to a student who doesn't have the money to buy one on their own.
Yes, everyone has played recorder at some point in their life, but for good reason.
Through the recorder I am able to teach students how to read music on a staff, how to control breath and flow of air, how to use a pitched instrument, how to work as an ensemble, how to play with accompaniment, how to read rhythm and rests, and so SO much more. Students love the recorder and the idea of working towards a colored recorder would inspire them even further.
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