Keyed Recorders: A Better Elementary Music Experience for All Learners
Help me give my students Nuvo keyed recorders to help every child be successful in music class.
$1,826 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.
There is never a dull moment in Ms. C's music classroom! 7 years ago I had the honor of becoming my school's first music teacher in fifteen years! In the seven years I have been here, my program has had the opportunity to grow so much that we not only have a thriving general music program, but we now have a chorus, honor choir, a pre-band recorder curriculum, ukulele ensembles, and a bucket/world drumming group for students in grades 3-5.
I teach in a small, underfunded elementary school in a city where 100% of our students qualify for free breakfast and lunch.
A third of my students are English Language Learners in a 96% Latino population. Because many of my students were not born in the US, adjusting to school here can often be difficult. I have found that music is a wonderful tool to help bridge the cultural divide and help students feel successful in a place where they may otherwise struggle.
My Project
My music students in 3rd grade are VERY excited to start playing recorders for the first time! Often, however, they struggle for more than half a year with making a beautiful sound, solely from the fact that their little fingers find it difficult to cover the entire hole of a traditional soprano recorder. Ugly, squeaky sounds occur if a finger is unable to cover the entirety of the hole, and children feel frustrated if they are unable to play simple songs successfully, even if they know the notes and finger combinations. This is made even more difficult for my special needs learners, who often have finger dexterity issues and have an even more difficult time placing fingers over the holes correctly.
Nuvo has come up with a revolutionary design for recorders that puts silicone keys over recorder holes, so that students can press on the correct keys without worrying about whether their fingers are able to cover the entire hole.
This enables students to focus on the essentials of recorder playing, such as breath control, finger placement and note shifting, and allow them to play songs so much more quickly than they would with traditional soprano recorders.
These recorders are easily washable, have hard cases that won't get knocked around inside a backpack, and are great for little hands learning their very first pre-band wind instrument! In this way all students in 3rd grade, as well as students with special dexterity needs of ALL grades, will be more successful playing the recorder.
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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. Eipper and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
