Individual Music Kits

Funded Nov 30, 2020

Thank you so much for donating to my project. I can not express the gratitude I feel that these Individual Music Kits which have allowed my students and I to have a collective music experience again. My class is about teaching students that each voice in the room is important because without one voice it can change the whole sound. Students learn to make music together and to use their individual voice to make a collective sound. The COVID restrictions included singing with mask on more then 6 feet apart and preferably outside. I did not have the space in the classroom to be more then 6 feet apart. These music kits allowed students to play in parts, to create rhythms and to make music together without singing. If you were to ever walk past my room before COVID, my students would be singing most of the time. The COVID restrictions have restricted singing and sharing instruments which is most of the curriculum. With every single student receiving a kit, we can make music together. The kits have rhythm sticks, an egg shaker, jingle bells, scarf, small pool noodles and spoons in the zip lock bags. Thank you so much for breathing life back into my classroom.

A specific project in my classroom that we are using the kits for is a song called mouse in a house. In this piece, the students have to build a mouse a house by sawing, hammering and painting. Each student will give their opinion of which item in the kit makes that noise then we will vote as a class. So we perform the song using three pieces from our kit. This is one of many activities that the individual kit is used for.

Along with using the kits every single class, the reaction to the kit every time they get it in their hand is so joyful. Music is about celebrating and making noise and this allows them to do so. When I first put the kits in the students hands they were so excited to open them and play each piece in the kit. So the first lesson is always exploring the music kit and the sounds we can create.

Thank you again for helping me get these music kits for my students. COVID has been a challenge for everyone but music has had some extra challenges that these help to solve. Moving forward these kits will travel with these students as they go from grade level to grade level. I can not thank you enough for the joy and excitement that it bring my students and I to make music together.”

With gratitude,

Ms. Brown