Hello Community friends! I feel like Iām over the moon with this news I have to share
It was a couple of months ago when our headmaster told us there were this year some extra money to spend on projects for our schools; she also said she would like better to enhance the human resources within the institute, from kindergartens to secondary schoolsā teachers. We only had a Theatre play including a puppet workshop on our plate so I wrote a WhatsApp to my colleagues saying āIf you want I couldā¦etcā - a simple āwowā and nothing else than that was the only response I got, so I thought they were not interested, butā¦after a couple of days we had our scheduled teachersā meeting and they all wanted my Ukulele Project! So here it isā¦it started right this past week: 4 schools out of 6 (mine and another one are having the Theatre) with 7 or 8 sessions each school. It seems pretty much impossible! Here are the targeted groups in each school:
A. 18 children/mixed 3-4-5 yo
B. 22 children /4 yo
C. 11 children / 5yo
D. 53 children / mixed age divided into two groups.
A and B children will have a little songbook at the end of the project; C an english songbook; and D children a colourful painted uke, something like these little guitars we made last year with my class for a Rocking around the Christmas Tree coreography.
So they all have a cool final product to bring home, to document the activities and, hopefully with some sweet memories weāll build together! Iāve been pretty busy this past month to organise the activities and prepare all the materials. Here are our Ukesā¦
The first session went pretty well, the children loved the Ukes!
As a first thing, to know eachother I proposed a little game that I often do with my class: we were all sitting in circle and I had put all the ukes and the other stuff in the middle of it; first I took my recorder and played some notes and we had a short conversation on that, then after clapping along each name I asked how many notes we needed to sing our name: easy, right? You just count the syllables youāve found with the clapping! Sil-Viaā¦2 notes on the recorder and then you can sing the name! It was fun, they all did well and if someone was a bit shy the other children would sing the name with or for him/her! I was making it easy with the notes and play from low to high when a little boy said he would rather sing his name from high to low kids are smart eh! Then I got fancy with the notes and played triads, mono-notes names, small and big jumps and octaves tooā¦someone tried to sing before waiting for the notes but someone said āNo! You have to listen first!ā Ehā¦ Listen The children were all engaged in the game but the ukes were there and they wanted to strum them!
So after completing the namesā game I said we were going to take them but that I needed just a couple of minutes more of their attention: I strummed a 8 bar chord progression on my uke, someone clapped along, someone had a little dance and when I asked if they liked it they said yes it was niceā¦then I said āNow I turn these little white keys, letās see what happens!āā¦and when I strummed as expected they brought their hands to their ears and said it was awfulā¦ āthis is why you wonāt turn the tuning pegs, will you?āā¦butā¦you know to a 3 yo kidās eyes turning the tuning pegs is as much if not even more interesting than strumming the uke itself ā¦and as expected someone turned them in the end
And after that I retuned my uke and we strummed and sung, they strummed along with me and I told them that as a real Rock Band we had to start together and we tapped and counted 1 2 3 4! A little girl proudly showed me some tattos on her arm, affirming she was already a real rock-star
Wow wow wowā¦second session starting from tomorrowā¦Iāll move on from this first one, something more about the notes, the tuning and about Rhythm as well! Wow wow wow!
Thatās awesome, Silvia . Iām so happy for you and the kids, that your project got accepted.
I wish you many funny and musical hours. Youāre sowing seeds - who knows, where this might lead to .
What a wonderful story Silvia and great project. You sound like a really cool teacher bet the kids love you. Never even got to blow a recorder at that age unless your parents bought oneā¦a waste of money apparently
Wishing you every success with your students.
Lovely story Silvia! They are lucky children to have music in their school day! Itās magical how little kids can make things that a grown up takes for granted and turn into a special adventure! So happy for you!!!
It makes me wonder how many of us here in the Community could help young people be more musical?!?!
Hi Sylvia, what a wonderful project youāve created! You are a wonderful teacher, full of creativity and heartwarming adiction to what you are doing! Itās so important that children can get those early experiences with musical aspects, you are sowing the seeds for moreā¦ . I wished I had a music teacher like you! Our musical education in school was primarly based on abstract music theory and singing boring old german songs.
I wish you all the best for this wonderful project !
Silvia that sounds like so much fun!
You are so creative the children are so lucky to have you as a teacher and to be part of this project. Itās so joyous and heartwarming
Thank you for sharing this
Hi Silvia,
That quote above is the most important thing for now , of course not all those children will play an instrument later and remember this stuff , but at least one (who will later ignite others) and maybe 5 or ten ā¦
Either way it is very great fun heart-warming amazing cool sweet nice wow smiling stuff you do
Thank you all so much for sharing my enthusiasm! But please please please do not call me a Music Teacher because Iām not!
Itās being very much fun insofar but I feel it also as a big responsalityā¦ I have immediate feedback and I can say if theyāre enjoying the activities and having fun or not and I can modulate things on the way, and also gain more self-awareness myself. Weāre not doing much in the end, I prefer to do less, have a relaxed time where I can invest more energy in observing the individuals and give some more care to those who need itā¦yesterday two children didnāt want to have a try at strumming the ukes, I let them be, they said they were tiredā¦but when I went away I told them that maybe next time they wonāt be tired and might have a try with the ukes, they smiled and said they will!
We all have our own musicality, being able or wanting to connect with it might be also a personal choiceā¦and we need to respect it. Playing an instrument requires discipline and work (not the uke ) for manyā¦most of us I guess are not in the talented ones who learn fast categoryā¦simply someone might prefer to spend their spare time otherwise and enjoy music by being avid listenersā¦what I think we can do is helping others to be more self-confident, making them understand that they can do it; I was one who felt pretty much hopeless with learning to play the guitar, Justin proved I was wrong and Iāll be forever grateful for this!
I doubt this though, if our school system doesnāt change and find new ways to make students learn languagesā¦of course Iām good at that too hahaha