My students need materials to design and make homemade folk instruments.
$258 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.
Our school is one of four middle schools in a large urban environment. We are privileged with a depth of diversity - socially, economically, religiously, and ethnically. These students are part of my Encore Enrichment Activity. Encore take place once a week and is new this year. These students chose to participate in my enrichment class, they were given many choices and they picked this because of their interest!
These students are are a curious group of 6th, 7th and 8th graders that are actively participating in the search for resources, as well as helping the recycling effort in our school.
The students are bringing in materials to re-purpose into instruments. They have also begun to collect cans and bottles throughout the school. These cans and bottles are for use in projects, as well as returned for the deposits to contribute the cost of supplies.
In the short two weeks of this Encore rotation this motivated group has committed to improving the recycling efforts of the school. On their own they have created a rotation so that all class members are active participants. It has been a great experience thus far on a recycled shoe string budget.
My Project
As stated earlier the Encore enrichment program provides students the opportunity to select the program they want to participate in. The Encore enrichment activity I have chose to offer is titled “Junkyard Band”. The greatest challenge of this directive is the initiative is not funded. Teachers have become very creative in how to secure resources. Many of my resources come from the broken, old and in the way items found in recycle bins and junkyards!
Students are going to research, design, and build instruments out of a combination of re-purposed items, basic hardware, and some store purchased materials to create homemade folk instruments .
Students will explore percussion, stringed, and wind instruments with the ultimate goal to build a fretted Cigar Box Guitar.
Junkyard Band is a synthesis of three personal interests. The first is a love of music and instruments. Second, designing and building of crafts and projects. Lastly, the love of learning and researching.
Last spring Dennis Waring did a presentation at our school where he used recycled and every day basic hardware to produce and play a number of folk inspired instruments. That was the “ah-ha” moment I found my enrichment activity. I wanted to provide students the opportunity to participate in. Mr. Waring has been so helpful. We exchange email and ideas. He is paying it forward! Students are going to participate in the funding (collecting of cans and bottles) and collecting of supplies to re-purpose. Students will design and build projects such as: Kalimba (African Thumb Piano), percussion and drums, Slap and Slit Drums, flutes, 1, 2 , and 3 stringed instruments and what ever else can be dreamed and designed!
If the Donors Choose I would love to send each home at the end with their very own 3 string Cigar Box Guitar.
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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 Mr. Socci and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
