The students and community I serve come from diverse backgrounds and often low-economic households where over 70% of the student body qualifies for free and reduced price lunch making it hard for me to ask the community to help fund classroom items.
When the classes come to music I hope to create an environment that allows students to have fun, feel safe, and offer a creative outlet for students to learn, engage with, and connect with an artform that brings us together- Music.
Because I am a 'Specials' educator and not a general educator it is even more difficult for me to ask students and their families to help bring in classroom essentials (pencils, tissues, etc.) Because of this, my budget must be split between these classroom necessities and musical additions used to enhance and broaden our learning experiences. Funding a project like this on a platform like DonorsChoose allows my program to grow in ways it could not normally do so.
This Ukulele program will reach approximately 100 students throughout our four fifth grade classes at the school.
My Project
Of all the activities I introduce to and engage my students in, their favorite activity is making music with INSTRUMENTS! After participating in music classes for five years the fifth grade students at the elementary school will have completed years of experience with Orff instruments, hand drums, hand bells, recorder playing, and more; the students are excited to explore their next musical opportunity.
In preparation for secondary music at the middle school and to create a new meaningful pathway for musical learning, our school is hoping to start a Ukulele program for the fifth graders.
Currently our elementary school, the middle school, and high school in our district do not offer Ukuleles, so I am in the process of building this program from the very beginning for our district.
In addition to classroom use, we can use these instruments as a part of our annual concerts and performances and to enhance our choir program with a new element of music making.
We have currently completed two Donors Choose project for the first ten instruments, this third set of Ukuleles will allow us to add an additional five to that number. With a total of 15 Ukuleles we are able to create a 2:1 student-instrument ratio where students can learn the instrument in pairs. In the future my goal is to do additional Donors Choose projects to fund additional sets to get to a 1:1 student-instrument ratio (a class set of 30).
I have specifically picked the Kala Waterman model because the Kala brand has a reputation for creating quality instruments while the material of the Waterman model allows for the instruments to be cleaned and sanitized easier.
These instruments I am asking for are high quality and will continue to provide quality musical opportunities for years to come.
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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 Ms. Wilcox and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.
