The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way teachers teach their students, and that includes special classes like music.
One Benzie Central elementary music teacher, Nancy Reed, knew she had to think outside the box to teach her students this year.
“We would often get out instruments to play and the students would share or take turns,” Reed said. “Just in this environment, we can’t do that now.”
She took inspiration from Facebook and created individual music kits for her students using homemade instruments.
“We have pool noodles that I took and cut into about four inch pieces, cut them in half and they scrape them so it sounds like sand paper,” Reed said. “We also have wooden dowels cut into wooden sticks so they play them like rhythm sticks. And then also rhythm egg shakers filled with popcorn.”
Reed is always looking for more additions to her students’ kits.
“As things come up and I feel like I can make that pretty inexpensively, we’re going to add that to the kit,” Reed said.
Reed knows some of her students are disappointed they can’t sing as much as they used to in class, but ultimately the music kits are a change students have quickly grown to love.
“I love, like, moving with them and smacking the rhythm sticks,” said second grader Wyatt Heiler. “And sometimes scrubbing the pool noodles. Yeah, that’s what I love doing.”
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