Try to imagine your day without music. Driving in a car, watching a movie or TV show would be pretty boring, wouldn't it? My students are learning the building blocks of playing and making music, but don't have enough instruments to do so!
My 900+ students live in a high poverty area of a large urban area in Indiana.
There is not currently a set budget amount for music at the elementary level; there is only an amount given to me after all of the other budget needs have been met.
I cannot guarantee that I will be able to buy the supplemental materials such as instruments that my students would benefit from having. My students enjoy their music learning, but would be excited to know that there are enough instruments for everyone to have their own during class. For some of my students, music is a form of expression that they thrive on when they struggle to find success in other academic areas
My Project
The xylophones I have chosen are high quality instruments that are easy to maintain. The set up allows versatility so that bars can be removed to allow students to concentrate on only the pitches required for the music they are playing. This will allow my students to work on melody and harmony. The ease of transitioning the bars to different pitch sets will allow me to quickly change songs and allow more time for learning. I am planning on using these xylophones for our programs performed by 2nd and 3rd graders, possibly at Holiday time and at our End of the Year performance.
My students currently have to share instruments because of our large class sizes.
The few instruments I do have are so old and were left in poor condition that I was unable to repair them for use.
Funding this project will allow me to challenge and inspire my students to achieve advanced music skills such as melody and harmony, using a common classroom instrument. Learning this at a young age can help them transition into performing ensembles in middle school and high school.
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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. Etter and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.