{"id":11616,"date":"2023-11-28T11:41:49","date_gmt":"2023-11-28T16:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=11616"},"modified":"2023-11-28T11:41:49","modified_gmt":"2023-11-28T16:41:49","slug":"drum-lessons-help-great-neck-middle-sixth-graders-hone-critical-and-creative-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/drum-lessons-help-great-neck-middle-sixth-graders-hone-critical-and-creative-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Drum lessons help Great Neck Middle sixth graders hone critical and creative thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sixth-grade Great Neck Middle School social studies students had the opportunity to create a miniature West African drum after they had studied about West Africa. The project was made possible through a grant from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

-By Cindy Focke<\/p>\n

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Great Neck Middle School band teacher Heather Smith played her authentic djembe West African drum for sixth graders who had studied about European exploration in North America and West Africa. Afterwards, students created their own miniature drum replicas.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Band teacher Heather Smith gathers in a drum circle with sixth grade social studies students at Great Neck Middle. She shows them her authentic djembe (pronounced jim-bay) drum.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are three sounds this drum can make,\u201d she said. \u201cTone, bass, and slap.\u201d She demonstrates by rhythmically pounding the drum with two hands to \u201cget enough resistance so you get enough sound.\u201d<\/p>\n

The activity was made possible through a grant from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation. \u201cFull STEAM Ahead in U.S. History\u201d focuses of revolutionizing how social studies is taught and makes the subject engaging and interactive for students, said Great Neck Middle instructional technology specialist Jessica Carpenter. \u00a0Students learn through projects that combine science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hands-on approach fosters critical thinking and creativity as students explore and interpret historical concepts in a tangible way,\u201d Carpenter said. \u00a0She also said students learn to problem solve, analyze historical data, and gain future ready skills.<\/p>\n

The students had already learned about European exploration in North America and West Africa and those societies and cultures. By coincidence, Smith studied and lived with musicians in Ghana, where she learned how to play the drum, native to the West African culture.<\/p>\n

After Smith demonstrated how to play the drum, social studies teacher Iwalani Wilson announced the class assignment: \u201cWe are making replicas of djembe drums today.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sixth-grade social studies teacher Iwalani Wilson applied for a grant from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation to enhance areas of study. Students had the opportunity to create miniature West African djembe drums after studying about West Africa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Supplies were distributed, including half of a small plastic bottle, balloons, scissors, beads, rubber bands, brown paper bags, and string. They brainstormed in groups how to use the items to make authentic-looking miniature drums, like the one belonging to their music teacher.<\/p>\n

Mara Riehle and three classmates secured yellow balloons as the top of their drums and used the brown paper bag to resemble wood on its base.<\/p>\n

Mara said she enjoyed the activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like learning by doing,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nearby, Mckinley Wetmore and her group strung beads on string to create an artistic pattern on their drums.<\/p>\n

Across the hall, Erica Brown\u2019s students were also drum-making.<\/p>\n

Sixth grader Carly Bolen said she loves art and realized that djembe drums are all different because each is made by hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really know that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her teacher said hands-on projects such as this helps students value other cultures and deepens the understanding of the subject matter.<\/p>\n

The foundation\u2019s grant also provided the school\u2019s sixth grade social studies students with supplies to design replicas of shelters inhabited by indigenous cultures, including igloos, plank houses and pueblos. They also created terrain models with playdough to demonstrate knowledge of land and water features.<\/p>\n

Principal Thomas Quinn said students made real-world connections during the project and recognized \u201cthe importance of focusing on the process as well as the product.\u201d<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s more to come, including the use of Legos to recreate key events of the America Revolution, and programming and coding small programmable robots to simulate traveling along the Oregon Trail and Underground Railroad.<\/p>\n

Iwalani Wilson was pleased as she watched her students work together and add their own creative touches to the drums. \u201cLook at them,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are engaged, and they are learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Carly Bolen showed off her miniature djembe West African drum, a hands-on project as part of the sixth-grade study of European exploration in North America and West Africa.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Great Neck Middle School sixth-grader Mara Riehle, right, said it\u2019s fun to learn by doing. She and classmates (from left) Adriana Suris, Sage Logan and Arleigh Shick worked together to make miniature djembe drums after studying about West Africa. The activity is one of quite a few social studies projects this year thanks to a grant from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Sixth-grade Great Neck Middle School social studies students had the opportunity to create a miniature West African drum after they had studied about West Africa. The project was made possible through a grant from the Virginia Beach Education Foundation.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-By Cindy Focke Band teacher Heather Smith gathers in a drum circle with sixth grade social studies students at Great Neck Middle. She shows them her authentic djembe (pronounced jim-bay) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":11622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11616"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11626,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11616\/revisions\/11626"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}