Materials matter when you’re making music. Woodwinds, brass and string instruments all sound different because of the different materials used to make them. Even the sound of percussion instruments is different based upon whether you hit them with hands, drumsticks or mallets. After learning about the different materials used to make a variety of instruments, kindergarten students in Ms. Clayton’s music class got a hands-on lesson in how materials impact sound by making their own rain sticks.
Students decorated recycled paper towel tubes with markers, crayons, stickers and feathers in Ms. Baisley’s art class. Back in Ms. Clayton’s music class, they added birdseed into the tube and sealed off the ends with recycled bottle tops. They read books such as “Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain” to learn about the history of rain sticks and how some cultures believed that playing rain sticks would lead to more rain.
It was a lesson in music, art, sustainability and literacy all wrapped into one!
