Past projects 49
Mallet Madness!
Funded May 17, 2012It's just the right size! When I unpacked the new alto xylophone that you provided I knew that it would be perfect. It is large enough for two students to sit and play comfortably and it works really well for small hands and small bodies. The sound is clear and loud and it helps to fill out our barred percussion ensembles. Younger grades can use this instrument to work on accompaniment patterns and older students have already begun to experiment with creating and improvising melodies. Our possibilities with this instrument are endless!
I plan to use this xylophone with my other barred percussion instruments on a weekly basis with all of our students, Kindergarten through fifth grade. Playing mallet instruments, such as the xylophone, helps to improve motor skills and eye-hand coordination. When two mallets are used simultaneously, both sides of the brain are used and must communicate with each other. This skill helps students not only in music but almost all other areas of life. As students get better at playing this xylophone, the hope is that they will feel able to try other new instruments and create in other new ways.
Our school budget doesn't have the room for much instrument upkeep or many purchases. Your donation to this project helped to bring a larger more versatile instrument to our community. We would have never been able to get this instrument on our own! Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by Match for Kansas City Schools and 4 other donors.Loving the Low Tones!
Funded Jul 10, 2012There are some fantastic low tones ringing out of my music room these days thanks to you and your donation! The gift you gave helped to purchase a spectacular bass xylophone that looks and sounds amazing. The low tones resonate out of the instrument and ring with every "thunk" of the fuzzy, yellow mallets on wood. These lower notes stand out and help student to hear a new range or sounds. The xylophone is also perfect to add into an ensemble as it creates a wonderful foundation to the sound and makes our songs more full and exciting.
This bass xylophone a large, sturdy instrument that easily allows for two students to play at once, meaning that less students have to sit out on each rotation. The size is wonderful because the kids aren't cramped to try and fit two to an instrument and the size of the bars make it easy to locate and strike the right note. For my beginning students with little experience and limited hand-eye coordination, this instrument is a huge help. They are better able to learn quickly and develop skills that they can transfer to other instruments and situations.
We've only been using the xylophone a few weeks and already it has added so much to our classroom and makes instruction of students a great deal easier. More kids get to play more of the time on a really fantastic instrument.
If I were to have ordered this through my school it would have cost my whole budget for several years. Your contributions, large and small, came together to provide a quality instrument that will be used for years to come by countless students. Thank you!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
Practice Makes Perfect!
Funded Jun 22, 2012Thank you, thank you, thank you! I cannot thank you enough for donating to this project and helping my students get three fantastic alto glockenspiels. The instruments are an amazing addition to my classroom and have already impacted our learning in a significant way. The glockenspiels are much larger than I expected and are the perfect size for small hands and little bodies. Two students can sit comfortably at each instrument, which means that I can fit six students (a fourth of my normal-sized classes) on just these three instruments. Every student has an instrument to play and every student gets that extremely important experience each time we sit down to work on a concept or play a song. Wide bars on the alto glockenspiel allow students to strike the right note much more of the time. They feel a sense of accomplishment when they are more accurate striking the glockenspiel bars and they transfer that skill to the instruments with smaller bars when we rotate. We are more accurate when striking notes and not feeling squished at an instrument helps with posture and playing procedure. Thanks also for providing the extra mallets for each instrument because our old mallets just weren't cutting it!
The kids love the instruments, they ring out clearly and in tune, and I can breath a huge sigh of relief knowing that each student will be able to play every time. I don't have to sideline anyone and ask them to wait or play something else until they get a turn. Everyone is learning all the time! Thank you so, so much!”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by Match for Kansas City Schools and 3 other donors.Making "Whacky" Music!
Funded Jun 12, 2012What a blast! Today was the first day of a playing unit with my third graders using our new Boomwhackers and we had so much fun. These Boomwhackers are the perfect instrument for elementary school classrooms because they are quite durable, easy to play, and fun. The Boomwhackers make great sound no matter where you whack them (the floor, the wall, your hand, your head!). We spent a few minutes discovering the different ways that the Boomwhackers could make sound and how different levels of force or different striking techniques could make different sounds and then we dove into some ensemble work.
Because of your donation, each kid got a brightly colored whacker of their own to use and they had so much fun learning to bop it, tap it, and smack it. When we all whack together we can make fun chords and melodies and also work out some of our wiggles. Boomwhackers are a great way to learn about melody, rhythm, and even harmony when we work together. Once we spent some time trying out the instruments and got used to playing them we started learning a song from one of the books your provided. Right now we're working on some of the easier "building block" songs from the Children's Songs Volume 1 in third grade, but soon the fifth graders will begin working on some American songs from the All-American Boomwhackers songbook you provided.
In the flurry of colored boomwhackers it was easy to see the joy and excitement of creation. Thank you so much for making today possible and for all the lessons in the future where we will make "whacky" music as a group.”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by Match for Kansas City Schools and 2 other donors.What's That Sound!?
Funded Mar 23, 2012Thank you for bringing the world to our little Midwestern school! With only one project we gained two cowbells, two guiros, an authentic seed rattle, a set of agogo bells, and two pairs of yarn mallets. These instruments electrify non-western music lessons, percussion work, and sound stories by bringing new sounds and timbres into the classroom. We're now better equipped to explore African, South American, and European music because of these actual, tangible artifacts from those regions. Hearing and creating new sounds helps to expand our students' worldviews as they learn what new instruments look and sound like and how they're used in societies around the world.
It's especially nice to get these instruments because they are standard supplies in most music rooms. The mallets help to replace old and broken mallets that were still in use. The cowbells and agogo bells will be great for percussion circles and rhythm reading and the seed rattle and guiros will definitely compliment some of the South American and African songs that we're currently learning how to sing. As you can see, these new additions have already opened up new and exciting possibilities for our classroom.
Thank you again for your investment in our classroom and in music education. ”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by Match for Kansas City Schools and one other donor.Everybody Can Play!
Funded Mar 14, 2012There is no way that these short paragraphs can adequately convey my thanks for your contribution to our classroom. The donation you made has helped to purchase a spectacular metallophone that immediately grabbed the attention of my students. It's a large, sturdy instrument that easily allows for two students to play at once, meaning that less students have to sit out on each rotation. The size is wonderful because the kids aren't cramped to try and fit two to an instrument and the size of the bars make it easy to locate and strike the right note. For my beginning students with little experience and limited hand-eye coordination, this instrument is a huge help. They are better able to learn quickly and develop skills that they can transfer to other instruments and situations.
Have I mentioned how nice it sounds? The metallophone rings beautifully and creates a new dimension of sound that's lower and clearer than many of our other instruments. Students can feel a new presence when we play and delight at how it adds to our ensemble work. Younger students love how it rings when we play musical games together to develop steady beat and tone production.
We've only been using the metallophone a few weeks and already it has added so much to our classroom and makes instruction of students a great deal easier. More kids get to play more of the time on a really fantastic instrument.
If I were to have ordered this through my school it would have cost my whole budget for several years. Your contributions, large and small, came together to provide a quality instrument that will be used for years to come by countless students. Thank you! ”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
No One Left Out
Funded Mar 19, 2012The soprano xylophone you helped to make possible was barely out of the packing peanuts when an exuberant group of second graders came in for their music class. That day they were supposed to practice how to play a bordun (an accompaniment pattern using the interval of a fifth) and I had been trying to figure out how to make a rotation so that not many students had to sit out. We don't have enough barred percussion instruments and so we usually have to rotate through the instruments while a few students try and practice our skill using only rhythm sticks on the floor.
The new xylophone allowed for two more students to play per rotation and when all the students were seated every person had something to play. It was the first time that I've had a class where everyone could work on their skill at an actual barred percussion instrument. At that moment your generosity really overwhelmed me and I was so thankful that you helped to make active learning at an instrument possible for every student in my classroom. Each second grader had the chance to play the entire time and rotated through a number of instruments including the new xylophone. By the end of class I felt confident that they learned a great deal and were well on their way to mastering the skill.
Thank you so much for your investment in my classroom. I'm excited that my students will get to play this xylophone for many years to come. ”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by Match for Kansas City Schools and 5 other donors.Percussion Perfection
Funded Nov 17, 2011I want to take just a minute to thank you so much for your generous donation to this project. I can tell you that the kids have appreciated so much the addition of this new instrument. They immediately noticed the beautiful black drum with its intricate carvings and started to ask me all sorts of great questions about its origin, how it makes sound, how it's used in music making and so much more. Kids light up with joy when they hear the djembe resonate and especially when they get the chance to sit at the instrument and make it sing.
For the first few weeks we used the djembe to explain ostinato, to help with steady beat, and to talk about Western and Non-Western sounds. Last week we had a set of world drums on loan at our school. These last few days the students have all been able to sit down at a drum and play together. I have been blown away by how quickly the drumming has helped to fix problems, illustrate concepts, and spark imagination. The kids all envy the students who get to sit at "our drum" and they ask about how we're going to use it in the future.
This drum has opened up a world of possibilities. Thank you so much for making its purchase possible!
”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by NEA Foundation and 3 other donors.Rhythm of My Heart!
Funded Nov 16, 2011I'm so excited to tell you about the new and amazing sounds coming from our music room. When you walk in you can hear high, ringing tones resounding from our two new glockenspiels. The kids love the addition of these instruments and the new sounds that they produce. The soprano glockenspiels give the kids a chance to adapt the skills they've learned on mid-sized instruments and allow them to play with new sounds and textures.
I plan to use these glockenspiels on a weekly basis with all of our students, Kindergarten through 5th grade. Playing mallet instruments, such as the glockenspiel, helps to improve motor skills and eye-hand coordination. When two mallets are used simultaneously, both sides of the brain are used and must communicate with each other. This skill helps students not only in music but almost all other areas of life. As students get better at playing these glockenspiels, the hope is that they will feel able to try other new instruments and create in other new ways.
Our school budget doesn't have the room for much instrument upkeep or many purchases. Your donation to this project helped to bring not one, but two new instruments to our community, significantly expanding our possibilities. Thank you so much! ”
With gratitude,
Mr. Row
This classroom project was brought to life by Bing and one other donor.