Past projects 7
Seating Alternatives for Drumming
Funded Sep 19, 2024It is with much gratitude that we thank your for your generous donation to our school! That you for being so supportive over the last couple of years on donors choose! You are appreciated and your gift is appreciated. Thank you for supporting music in schools and supporting students to be creative!”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.
Basic Needs for the Music Room
Funded Aug 8, 2024Thank you for your kind generosity! It is such a wonderful feeling to have your support to create a space that my students will be able to learn and thrive in. Receiving these materials will give my kids the equal opportunity to learn in a way that is fun, creative, and safe.”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.
Carting Away Xylophones, Take 2!
Funded May 7, 2024Thank you for being so generous! Our school is so excited to be receiving these materials due to your kindness! Thank you so much! The students and I are looking forward to more accessibility to our materials and to making joyful music together that is inclusive to each individual at our school.”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.
This classroom project was brought to life by The DonorsChoose Community and 2 other donors.Carting away Xylophones
Funded Mar 27, 2024Thank you so much for your generosity! We are very excited to have these new carts in our classroom. You have made a lot of students very happy! Our classroom is going to be so much more inclusive and accessible. We can’t wait for everyone to be able to easily make music!”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.
This classroom project was brought to life by LOFT and one other donor.Technology in the Music Room
Funded Jan 19, 2016Technology has become a huge part of not only students' but also adults' lives. Students are used to having access to technology at almost anytime of the day and they constantly crave to learn about new ways they can use technology.
Music class is a place where it may not seem "normal" to use an iPad or even technology in general, but having access to the four iPads, is a huge excitement in my classroom. I have been able to introduce exciting projects to my upper grades (4th and 5th grade). My 5th graders have been able to use apps, such as Garage Band and Audacity, to create music. They have created music as simple as an 8-measure song to music that accompanies an animation or video game. 4th graders have been able to use the iPads to record themselves playing their recorders for our Recorder Karate tests.
Recorder Karate is a music curriculum that students learn a song, test on it, and receive a "belt" as an achievement for mastering their song.
The fourth graders have really warmed up to being able to record themselves test, because they get to hear themselves back. The fifth graders have also warmed up to the technology and constantly ask me for new projects of composing music so they can use the iPads.
My goal for the future is to have a class set of iPads, so that each student can compose music individually and have the opportunity to have the responsibility of using the iPads and not have to share the responsibilities.”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.
Music Becomes Movement and Movement Becomes Dance
Funded May 5, 2015The students are using our parachutes and stretchy band to help us with learning form. We have used them during Christmas time to the learn the musical form for songs from the Nutcracker. With using an object that generally is always fun for the students, it makes it easier for a subject that is just a little more difficult for the students to grasp. I have also been using the parachutes and stretchy band to help our Kindergartners learn, not only steady beat, but also how to keep our circle, a circle, when we are in motion. The stretchy band or parachutes really help me figure out who has trouble keeping our circle, while we are walking around the circle and allows me to help them out and fix what they are doing.
The students were definitely excited when they saw the parachutes and stretchy band! They didn't really know what a stretchy band was, but they have seen parachutes before, and like most kids, parachute day in gym class is always a favorite, so now that they get to use it, not only in gym, but also music, they couldn't contain their excitement!
I have learned of new ways we can use these items in the classroom and how to add more movement. I have made a project with Carnival of the Animals that will involve our parachutes more, but I am definitely still doing more research on how to use the items on more concepts than just musical form.”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.
Mallet Madness and Movement Scarves
Funded Mar 22, 2015My music students were so thrilled to receive the materials! I surprised the students with the activity scarves and new mallets and I don't think I have ever seen them so excited about something! They said that they were so grateful to have people so willing and polite to give money to our little school so that we could have these new materials! They were especially excited for our new mallets. To quote one of my students "We have never had enough mallets to use so that we could all play, but now we do! This is so exciting! Can we play our mallet instruments every music class?"
They love having access to these new materials! I can't teach one class anymore without the students coming up with ways we can incorporate the activity scarves and the new mallets for our Orff instruments. I have to tell them that we also have to use other instruments and our voices, but I am definitely coming up with more ways to use these materials. Recently, my 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders performed their music program entitled "River Child." Like always, I incorporate choreography into these songs and for one of our songs that is slow and reflective, I changed my choreography and decided to use these new activity scarves. The song we used them on was titled "The Colors of the Nile." This song tells the story of the Nile River and how it runs through nine different countries, and those countries all have a name for the river that involves a color. So with our colored scarves the 3rd graders used them in the choreography and the 4th and 5th graders help up pictures of the different people, cultures, and scenery of each of those countries. It was one of the most beautiful song I have had the pleasure of directing. I thought it reflected so well with the feeling of the song.
For the mallets, my Kindergartners are using them in an upcoming program all about Jack and the Beanstalk. They will be using them on the majority of our songs to add in an accompaniment of their own. I am also using the mallets with my first and second graders. We have started a unit on melody, melodic direction and improvisation. For all of these concepts, we are using the songs, "Hot Cross Buns." Within that song, we have learned our solfege and how to sing using solfege and the hand signs. After we have learned our solfege, we move on to letting them come up with their own melody and once they can sing it, then we move to our Orff instruments and they play their own melody on them.
These materials have inspired not only my students in their imagination and creation of music, but has also inspired my teaching and being able to incorporate my Orff instruments, when before I wasn't able to use them because we didn't have enough mallets. I cannot express how much these materials have helped my school and our music department. I love adding materials to my inventory!”
With gratitude,
Ms. N.