First Grade Musicians

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 will begin my sixth year teaching this fall at PS/IS 123 in the South Bronx. The school houses pre-k, kindergarten, first, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. One hundred percent of the students receive free lunch. Our early childhood program does not offer "special" classes, like art, gym, or music. There has been no money in the budget for teachers trained in these areas. Classroom teachers provide as many enrichment activities as possible to compensate, although there is no money for non-academic materials. A fellow colleague and I have tried to rectify the situation by team-teaching in art and music. We exchange classes of 5-7 year old students, so that both groups are exposed to art and music each week. Students look forward to their "special" time and are enjoying the activities immensely. Activities for my music class have been restricted to listening, singing, dancing, and practicing simple rhythms. Typically, we clap, snap and stomp. Students have also made their own simple instruments, like bean maracas and paper plate/bottle cap tambourines. Unfortunately, our instruments have not survived our enthusiastic, repeated use. Sturdy, well-made, child-sized instruments would be a wonderful addition to our music discovery class. Lakeshore Learning has a class set of 30 instruments, including tambourines, bells and triangles, sand blocks, finger cymbals, maracas, drums, castanets, claves and rhythm sticks. The set of thirty will allow everyone to play at one time. Lakeshore Learning also a set of four instruments from around the world, which would tie-in to our social studies curriculum. These are the Mexican Guiro, a Chinese gong, a Chilean rainstick and a West African balaphon. I'd also like to provide a xylophone to be available to individual students ready to begin reading color-coded music. The instruments would also be available for students to use during assembly performances. In all, sixty students will benefit from this first exposure to instrumental music. I have already seen the positive effects of our artistic efforts. I teach songs that complement our existing curriculum so there is increased excitement and anticipation in our learning. Students with musical intelligence have the opportunity to share their talent. Quiet children come out of their shells to participate. Struggling students look forward to reading new lyrics and succeeding at something. Please help me guide them all to the next level by adding instruments to our music experience.