My students are fascinated by stories. Every day in music class, we learn stories through our music, and all of these stories have a place. When I'm able to show my students on a map where our stories come from, they are immediately curious and ask to learn more.
Our school is a K-5 elementary school with a very diverse student population, including Hmong, African American, Latino, and Caucasian students.
Our students come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, including students who are homeless as well as students who have parents with advanced degrees.
My Project
Our current map is a small world map (free from National Geographic) that is stapled to the back of a pocket chart. It is difficult to use, and the students have a hard time seeing any of the detail. The maps we are requesting will be on rollers that hang from the wall, so we can pull them down anytime to discover a location we are studying. The students love to learn about geography in music, especially how the places we learn about compare to their own. We can learn about Norway as Peer Gynt runs from the angry mountain trolls (In the Hall of the Mountain King); we can find Thailand and learn that it was formerly Siam (The Siamese Cat Song); we can follow the Ohio River and trace its role in the Underground Railroad (Follow the Drinking Gourd); and we can learn about Ghana and the girl who found her way home with the help of jungle animals (Ayelevi). Every song has a story, and we want to explore every detail!
Because many of our students need extra help in math and reading, time for science and social studies at our school is extremely limited.
This project will provide a place to make cross-curricular connections between geography and music, hopefully filling a gap and creating curious, life-long learners in the process.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Ms. Felton and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
