MISSOULA - This week’s One Class at a Time grant winner is Jeannette Rankin Elementary School general music teacher Jenny Skrivseth.
She teaches 22 classes of students through the week, using some instruments that are a bit new, and some that I would remember from back in the day.
"We're using a lot of the same instruments. I have my trusty triangle. They like to fight over triangles. We are using some kind of fun instruments that I didn't use when I was a kid,” Skrivseth said. “There is something called boomwackers, which are rainbow colored plastic tubes, they love the boomwackers. I would have loved them when I was a kid."
Skrivseth will use her grant to buy Folksong Picture Books called "Song Tales” which are part of the First Steps in Music Curriculum by John Feierabent. The books feature folk songs and rhymes from the memories of Americans, preserving these treasured song tales for generations to come while teaching the fundamentals of music.
"Basically, what it does is it helps to make kids tuneful, beat-full, and artful,” Skrivseth explained. “So, helping to develop the singing voices, helpful in developing their strong beats, and helping them just be creative and connect with emotion through music."