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Connecting Students with Seniors Through Music and Correspondence

Applicant: Susan Bradley's Wild Racoon Class Student Group/Teachers/Community Members/Partnerships Involved: Wild Raccoon Class, Susan Bradley (teacher), Laytonville Seniors with connections made through Mary and Jim Crawford (The Grange), Jeanne Johnston (Garden Club), Kate Mayo, Ardeleen Luque and other community members. Brief Description of Project: To establish connections between the class and local seniors. Students will have senior penpals and will perform on recorders when the penpals are revealed to the students at a classroom tea party.

Connections How does the project connect with our theme of people, history, and place? The main purpose is to reach out to older members of the Laytonville community through connections in the Grange, Garden Club, Rancheria and newspaper in order to generate correspondence and an eventual meeting between young students and older community members. The students will be encouraged to ask their pen pals about their lives as young children in order to discover their common areas as well as the elders’ histories. How does the project interact with the community? The project will begin with correspondence between the children and the seniors. The long term goal is to bring retired community members into the school to help in classrooms. Our short term goal is a flute concert, held off school grounds and performed by the children. The concert, planned for May, will be the culminating activity where the participants will meet their pen pals. How does the project connect with other NCRCN members/ sites? We will keep a pictorial as well as written record of our progress to share with other communities.

Student Learning: How will the project improve student learning in relation to Holistic Learner Outcomes?: Self Directed Learner: Writing to a pen pal is a great motivational tool to encourage children to write without prompting. I would hope that learning to play a musical instrument will encourage many of the children in our class to further their interest in music. Community Contributor: The children will be planning, advertising and setting up their community concert. They will also be involved in corresponding with retired community members and then inviting them to their concert. Finally the children will have the responsibility of decorating their concert environment and preparing food for their guests. Constructive Thinker: Preparations for the concert as well as creating letters and posters necessitates constructive thinking. Quality Producer: This project will require a lot of music practice as well as the children’s best efforts to promote themselves. Effective Communicator: The success of our project will depend upon how effective the children communicate through their pictures, their words and music.

Support: What kind of support would you like from the coordinator? To help in finding willing correspondents as well as an appropriate setting for our concert. If you are applying for funds, what will you use the money for? We are asking for funds to purchase 20 song flutes (20 x $2.50 = $50. plus tax) and special lined paper to write music on ($12.95). We also need money for 3 rolls of film, plus developing ($50.00). We estimate about $50. for food and decorations for our concert. Total request: $175.00 with taxes What other sources might provide additional funding for your project? Past and present class fundraising as well as donations from our families.