Our elementary school has 500 Roadrunner Musicians in grades K-5 who are very inquisitive about Mozart and are excited about becoming "Mindful" of him! We have 50% minority students, a poverty index of 89, and 69% of our students are on free/reduced lunch. I am the music specialist, teaching general music to all classes s, which include 31 students with emotional disabilities and 2 students with autism.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be featured as our "Composer of the Year." Our students, who do not traditionally listen to classical music, were enthusiastic about our study of Beethoven last year and have already been asking which composer we’ll study this year. We have a shortage of books and recordings which feature Mozart's life and music. Throughout the year we would like to display books and posters of Mozart on our “wheasel” (an easel on wheels) as children enter the music room, and as the recordings of his music are being played.
The books, posters, and the recordings will stimulate the students' interest in both Mozart and classical music. They are eager to find out all about his life and music. The tubs on the wheasel will contain small instruments that children can use to accompany Mozart's music, and writing/art supplies for them to use as they create their own compositions, writings, and portraits of Mozart. The music standards of Singing, Playing, Analyzing, Creating, and Studying Music History will be met through these activities.
The students will be actively engaged in Mozart’s music, which has been proven by research to enhance students’ spatial & temporal reasoning (Campbell, 2000; Hetland, 2000) Research has shown that our students with emotional disabilities will also receive benefit from classical music. Stanley Hall, who received the first doctoral degree in psychology in the U.S. (Harvard, 1907) stated that “music...provides the best access to and outlet from the individual’s emotional world…an essential factor in the healthy development and training of mankind’s emotions today. “
Your donation will allow our 500 children to participate in this year-long project. As a result, our Roadrunner Musicians will develop an appreciation for, and be active with Mozart’s music in their music classes. They will become very “mindful” of Mozart with this initiative
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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. Arrington and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.