Past projects 6
Sing Me Another Story: Culturally Responsive Picture Books for Music
Funded Sep 22, 2021Thanks to your generosity, our students have been making beautiful music all year with our new books!
Kindergarten students explored sound and silence in "Hush! A Thai Lullaby" then composed their own "ta" and "sh" rhythm patterns for the different animals in the story to perform over a lullaby from Thailand. 5th grade students are OBSESSED with honing their virtual DJ skills on an online turntable after learning about DJ Kool Herc in "When the Beat Was Born". 4th grade students composed and performed their own paleta menus featuring Afro-Latin rhythms, colored scarves, and dance choreography inspired by the flavors and rhythmic textures in "Paletero Man".
Our students continue to talk (and sing!) about these stories long after we finish reading them--they connect so deeply with not only the characters who look and live like them but also those who lead very different lives from them. These books help create a more empathetic and curious classroom of learners with the turn of every page. Thank you again for your gift and support for our amazing young musicians!”
With gratitude,
Ms. P.
This classroom project was brought to life by The Allstate Foundation and 8 other donors.Strumming and Humming in the COVID-Safe Classroom
Funded Dec 28, 2020Thank you so much for your generosity--our 4th grade students have been LOVING their experience learning how to play the ukulele! Our ukulele unit has been a perfect fit for our circumstances--thanks to the instruments purchased for this project, each student cares for and practices on their own ukulele. Students have enjoyed selecting favorite songs to learn and play on their new instruments. "Chicken Wing Beat" has been a favorite across all students, and they have not only learned a unison part together but also composed their OWN strumming patterns to perform between the unison sections!
Having their own ukulele allows students to experience continuous, uninterrupted learning during class, with no lost instructional time for sanitizing instruments as they transfer from student to student. They have developed independence on their instruments, as class time is set aside each lesson for solo practice, an opportunity only made possible by individual instrument assignment.
I cannot wait for our ukulele performers to continue building their skills and tackle more challenging songs and chord progressions. Thanks to you, our musicians can practice and refine their skills on instruments that capture their interest and imagination in new ways every day.”
With gratitude,
Ms. P.
Sing Me a Story: Picture Books for Music Learning
Funded Aug 28, 2020Thank you so much for giving the gift of musical books to our students! Through these texts, students this year have explored the musicality of their names, learned and sung about historical freedom fighters, and even written their own protest songs about the issues and causes important to them.
As a teacher, these books have given me the flexibility of adapting standards-based musical lessons to in-person, synchronous remote, and asynchronous remote lessons, so all of my students have access to these stories and content no matter how they are learning this year. In-person, we can add live, layered sound effects to a scene of "No! My First Book of Protest", bringing the sounds of history to life. On Zoom, we can create song poems from our unique names inspired by the songs characters create in "Your Name is a Song". In response to pre-recorded Google Classroom singalouds, we can adapt Bob Marley's lyrics from "Get Up, Stand Up" to share our own values and fight for our rights through song. Students see and hear themselves in these books and in turn express their own realities, opinions, and dreams in their musical learning.
We are excited to continue exploring our new musical story library to create, perform, and connect to one another--perhaps our most essential need this year--through music.”
With gratitude,
Ms. P.
Ukulele Supplies For Newcomer Strummers
Funded Feb 22, 2017Thank you so much for donating to our music classroom--our students are well on their way to becoming ukulele masters because of your generous donation! The instructional books have helped me create a curriculum tailored to my learners' needs with sequenced lessons and engaging repertoire. The instrument cases not only provide safe storage for our ukuleles but also have been serving as a teaching tool thanks to a few ingenious 4th graders who discovered that they can be used as "practice ukuleles" while their partner is playing their shared instrument!!
We have learned several chords in our first two months with the instruments and with them can play a number of traditional and popular songs; we are especially looking forward to playing songs from "Moana" before the end of the school year! Thank you again for your gift in support of arts education in the Bronx!”
With gratitude,
Ms. P.
Music: The Universal Language
Funded Oct 17, 2014Thank you, Gracias, Xièxiè, and Tōmākē dhan'yabāda from all of our young musicians!
The recordings, songbooks, and picture books we received thanks to your generous donation have brought new worlds of music to our classroom. Students love singing the Spanish songs from the songbooks by Jose-Luis Orozco. Pre-Kindergarten students reinforce counting and fine motor skills in two languages with the song "Diez Deditos (Ten Little Fingers)". Second graders ask to sing about all of the instruments of the orchestra in Spanish again and again with "La Pulga de San Jose (The San Jose Flea Market)". Third graders have begun a ribbon dance and instrument performance project for Chinese New Year with authentic Chinese children's songs from "Little Dragon Tales" as a soundtrack. English language learners from Spanish-, Mandarin-, and Bengali-speaking households have relished in teaching their peers instrument names in their native languages with the set of bilingual picture books we received.
Your gift has promoted self-confidence, cross-cultural connections, and global exploration in our music classroom. We are grateful for your support!”
With gratitude,
Ms. P.
This classroom project was brought to life by an anonymous donor and one other donor.Dance to the Music!
Funded Sep 4, 2014We are dancing, moving, and grooving to the music in Ms. P's classroom with our new materials! Students are interacting with musical lessons in a deeper, hands-on way thanks to your generous donation.
In 3rd grade, we used our new ribbons in creating choreography to a song; when we sang it in "canon" (a round), students were able to both hear and SEE the parts of the song occurring at different times. In 2nd grade, we constructed a giant staff on the floor and manipulated our new rubber floor spots to compose a melody of steps, skips, and repeats--it was so fun to play our super-sized song on xylophones! In 1st grade, we used our new scarves to demonstrate piano (soft) and forte (loud) dynamics by improvising small and big movements, respectively.
These colorful, engaging teaching tools have proven themselves to be fantastic incentives for my students in class--they cannot wait to use their "glitter wands" (ribbons) and "giant notes" (floor spots) every week! Thank you so much for donating to our school and students and for supporting the arts in public education!”
With gratitude,
Ms. P.