Every child LOVES to play a drum, and every child I teach deserves to have great drums to play. They need these great drums to use to improvise with, and to use as we integrate all other academic subjects into the music classroom.
I am blessed to teach about 600 wonderfully talented K-5 students at a school in rural Appalachia.
Our school is a "Title 1" school, which means that the majority of these amazing children live at or below the poverty line. They are extremely musical and appreciative children, and they love playing instruments in music class. They only have small hand drums to play, and they would love these African drums!
My Project
These African drums are the kind of instruments that make a child's face light up when he or she is chosen to play them. My students will use these drums to play music written by themselves, each other, or by famous composers. They will use them to improvise music alone and together. They will learn how to properly play these drums to create different sounds, and can even use them to play the rhythms of words that can then be transcribed into rhythmic notation (quarter notes, half notes, etc.). We play recorders and xylophones in my classroom, and the drums will be used to accompany those instruments (as well as our voices). Common core integration? How about turning geometric patterns into rhythm patterns that we then play on the drums? Or using them in Kindergarten and 1st Grade to help illustrate a story that we read - or write - together? And these drums will last for generations and will be used in countless concerts for the entire community to enjoy.
Music education has often gone underfunded in most school systems, and our system is no different.
While our administration is extremely supportive of our music program, the money for instruments is just not there. So many of these children go without, and I do everything in my power to make sure they do not go without the best music education possible. These drums would do so much to take our music learning to the next level, and my wonderful students - and I - will be forever grateful.
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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 Mrs. Carter-Copeland and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.