Submitted by Donna Taylor, Rensselaer, Indiana

Idea posted May 28, 2002

My first year teaching, the students were mad at the last teacher for leaving and mad at me for taking his place, and the students (fifth graders especially) were just awful! Well, I knew that the week before spring break would be especially difficult, so I HAD to have a wonderful plan. I noticed that the Indianapolis Symphony had instruments that they would loan to schools for instrument "petting zoos," as they referred to them, but I was too far from Indy to make that happen. So I went to the rep from the music store that services our middle school band and asked if they could loan me instruments. They were thrilled to do so and also supplied reeds and mouthpiece disinfectant. (Numbers of beginning band students have increased since I began doing this!)

I supplement the instruments from the store with a few of my classroom rhythm instruments and my guitar. I spend several weeks in February calling for parent volunteers to help out. I can work the petting zoo with three helpers (four instrument families). The students come to my class twice per week for 30 minutes each time, so I let them visit two families each time they come. I have a sheet that tells volunteers exactly what I would tell the kids if I were teaching that family and a copy of the instrument info sheet out of Music K-8 magazine to help them answer questions. I let them adapt the lesson however they would like. We set up the instruments in the four corners of the "old gym" (a multipurpose room), and it gets noisy!

The students are great 'cause they want to try the instruments! They know (because I've done it) that if they are careless or disrespectful to helpers, they are "out" for the rest of the class and won't participate the next time either.

I don't know how to play anything except the clarinet, but the middle school band teacher (who is also my husband) was kind enough to give me a simple lesson in getting a noise out of each instrument. It's not difficult! Yesterday, every FIRST grader except one was able to make a sound out of the trumpet, and that is a good record! The kids get SO excited when they realize that the instrument is not as impossible as they might think. By the fifth grade, students who never would have joined band because of feeling that it was too hard for them are excited for summer band to begin.

I love doing the instrument petting zoo! Like I said before, I wouldn't do anything else the week before spring break!