Keys To Please

Impact to My Classroom

# of Students Impacted: 75

Having an electronic keyboard to use in music classes at Everglades City School has been of great benefit to the musical experiences for the children in grades K-5.  We used it every week in class.  Sometimes it was used to help students hear pitches and learn to match them with their vioces, while on other occasions just singing a song with a live instrumental background instead of a recorded piece of music was fun for the students.  The students (especially the older ones) would create a rhythmic background to a song that we were singing.  Sometimes we would sing the same songs but with different rhythmic backgrounds that would create a whole new different experience.  It could be a swing, rock or even a Latin brackground that the students would create.  When we would create sounds with the keyboard, the students were surprised by the number of different sounds/effects that could be made.  Each child was given the opportunity at different times to play the keyboard and to see how the keys were set up.  We were able to transfer the knowledge we gained with the keyboard to our "Orff" percussion instruments and saw that they were set up much in the same way.