New Friends, Old Friends

Some of my favorite childhood memories involve people born a 

full half century before my arrival.   I am endlessly grateful for the ways my early years were enriched through relationships with older generations. 

That's me, standing in front of my Daddy. I'm
wearing a fabulous hat that looks like a marshmallow.

Something almost magical happens when oldest and youngest come together.  One roomful of Dock Mennonite Academy students is blessed with this wonderful opportunity.

There are lots of great reasons to pursue inter-generational  programming. These connections provide fun and meaningful associations.  Stereotypes and age-related myths are quickly dispelled when genuine interaction takes place.  

Intentionally gathering these kinds of groups benefits students by encouraging positive attitudes toward aging.  Blossoming communication skills are improved as children learn to engage with a population other than the child’s family or peer group. 

The children were finishing up their “Foodie Friday” snack when I arrived to accompany them on their monthly outing.  Lining up in front of the large classroom mirror, they checked their own images closely, wiping crumbs from mouths before heading out to meet their senior friends.

Our small students climb with great anticipation into the van sent by Living Branches for their journey to see their elderly friends.  They are excited for the trip!  “I’m going on a BUS ride,” remarked Audrey, one of the students in the 4-year old class.  There is lots of buckling to be done as the children situate themselves into the passenger van seats for the short drive to Souderton’s Living Branches.  New student Tanvi was riding a “bus” for the very first time and she laughed the whole way to the retirement community!

Elderly friends were ready and waiting!  These wonderful folks hold a lifetime of wisdom and knowledge and are usually more than happy to share some of their experiences with small people!  Sharing stories is a great way to become companions.

Mrs. Kehs at the head of the line.

Our students are balls of energy. Veritable sponges, constantly learning as they absorb the information offered through their surroundings.  

The activity of the day was planned by Mrs. Kehs.  The residents and students made wreaths by gluing construction paper leaves, tissue paper and foam stickers to a paper plate base.  Once greetings were shared, the children and their counterparts got down to the business of wreath-making.

Peeling the backs from foam leaf stickers proved a challenging fine motor activity for both small and senior hands.  Not dissuaded, they helped each other with sticker-peeling, sometimes relying on the young hands in the pair and sometimes relying on well-worn fingers.

The temperature in the gathering area was a good ten or fifteen degrees warmer than the temperature inside our school building.  It didn’t take long for accompanying teachers to begin shedding sweaters.  Somehow the residents looked nice and cozy in their extra layers!

Four-year old children have lots of questions. Touching her companion’s hearing aide, one little girl asked, “What is in your ear?”  Her patient friend answered kindly.  

“That is so I can hear you!”  

It is easy to see that the expansion of the normal social network is valuable to the seniors as well.  





The elderly friends enjoy looking at life once again through the eyes of a little child.  Even one hour monthly provides something great to circle on the calendar, a real highlight to anticipate.  

Singing was involved.  One of the residents serenaded the children with several verses of “How much is that doggy in the window” during wreath construction.  The children often sing songs for their senior friends after the craft time, but a shortened visit due to a transportation delay precluded group songs this time around.

Charlie and Sophie eagerly explained the gluing and sticking process to their elder companion when she requested that they “show” her how it is done. 

One of the sweetest interactions I observed was on the men’s side of the crafting table.  While affixing items to his project, one of Graham’s brown construction paper maple leaves escaped unexpectedly and floated gently to the floor.  It landed in the most inconvenient spot, directly under the center of the small student’s rather weighty padded chair.  The chairs were positioned in close proximity to one another, making retrieval of that leaf more than a little difficult.  Graham's senior friend went immediately to work, snaking his aged and rather long arm down…down…and down. Finally achieving a most contorted angle, his arm looked rather like a pretzel.  His appendage extended as far as it could possibly go, he stretched his hand resolutely until his middle fingertip reached that elusive leaf.  The persistent gentleman was rewarded with an openly grateful four-year-old grin, causing the very kind man (now gallant leaf retriever) to chuckle to himself with great satisfaction. 

The organizer of this association is one of our early childhood teachers, Mrs. Kay Kehs.  Kay takes turns with a staff member from Living Branches in planning a shared monthly activity so the mixed pairs can work together, completing projects and building relationships. 

Unplanned activities arise too!  On the day I accompanied the group, some of the partners were comparing whistling skills and playing peekaboo before their time together came to an end.

In the interest of resident privacy, photos of some of the best faces of the day cannot be shared in this blog.  Rest assured, the smiles were present and beaming.    

Communities benefit when people engage with one another and everyone feels included in the process. 

Classroom Aide Mrs. Kelly Kratz helping to secure the students in the "bus" for the drive back to school.

New friends and old friends, accepting one another just as they are. 
We are so thankful for this unique and rewarding opportunity for our students! 

Blog Photo Credit:  Kathy Gordon

BIG IDEAS

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A little story. 

(Cue cheesy background music…)  

Once upon a time, an enthusiastic music teacher named Mrs. Laura Landes had a dream.  Her vision involved the delightful tones of a classroom filled with 5^th grade students- their eager hands strumming in perfect time on tiny composite ukuleles.

Last year for her birthday, Mrs. Landes bought herself a gift.  Most women would purchase something traditionally lovely…but not our Mrs. Landes.  




(Really, if you are going to buy yourself a present, you go for chocolate or jewelry, no?)  

Apparently not.  
Instead, she decided to "treat" herself to a ukulele.

Mrs. Landes is apparently a quick study because within an hour of getting her hands on that birthday gift, she was through the entire beginner methods book and playing some simple songs.  It was so easy and SO much fun, she started brainstorming about ways to use it in the classroom. She tells me, “Ukes are especially great for little hands because the four strings are so close together!” Nylon strings make learning less uncomfortable than the metal strings on a guitar.

In the spring, Mrs. Landes went to the annual Pennsylvania Music Educator’s Association Conference in Hershey.  She was able to attend some clinics and her interest in pursuing classroom ukulele instruction grew.  After collaborating with Mrs. Berg and Mrs. Litzenberger in the music department, the team decided that Mrs. Landes would pursue writing a grant to purchase a classroom set of thirty instruments.

 

Before any of that could happen, an interesting post arose on Facebook.  Even social media has occasional benefits! Mrs. Litzenberger found a notice publicizing that the first 80 schools on the eastern half of the US who “liked”, “shared,” and sent an email in response to the posting would be rewarded with 40 ukuleles.

You can imagine what a woman who buys herself a birthday ukulele would do with THAT information. Mrs. Landes was on that opportunity like white on rice!  Two days later she received an affirmative response from the company. Thanks to Mrs. Landes and her big idea (where big idea means itty bitty stringed instrument), our school was the lucky recipient of Kala Brand Music Company’s September instrument giveaway.

Ukuleles have recently made a comeback in popularity.  They were “born” in Hawaii, way back in the 19^th century…lutes constructed of wood, playing in time with island breezes on the Big Island.  

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During a trip to the 1939 World’s Fair, a man named Mario Maccaferri became inspired by the notion of an all-weather plastic instrument.  Soon after, he invented his water-resistant version of the Hawaiian product.  His tiny instruments sold like hotcakes for two decades. 

In the same spirit of outdoor fun, a company in Petaluma, California continues to make high-grade, durable instruments.  One such product is the Waterman ukulele. 

What does your mind recall when you hear the plinking strains of a ukulele?  Images of grass skirts and the falsetto crooning of an eccentric musician singing “Tiptoe through the Tulips” come to mind for me.  

At least that is what came to mind prior to our school's awesome aquisition!

Visit Kala Brand Music's Facebook page

or check  their website for 

more information.

Just before October, there was a small celebratory party in the main office when some large cardboard boxes arrived.  

The boxes contained an abundant supply of Waterman soprano ukuleles, complete with gig bags (you know…just in case we want to take our show on the road….)

Soon, Mrs. Landes was fashioning uke picks from old credit cards and painstakingly tuning the plethora of new instruments until her well-trained ear and key-twisting fingers were utterly and thoroughly spent.

It was no small feat to have all those nylgut strings singing the same fabulous tones!

If you like Where's Waldo, you might enjoy
searching for Mrs. Landes on one of the newly
clipped ukulele picks above. 

Why is this so exciting?  Let me just tell you.  

Research shows that brains of children are actually changed when they learn to make music on an instrument.  As children begin to hear and process sounds, they develop neurophysiological distinctions between different resonances.  This is a fancy way of saying that children who learn to PLAY music will have increased success in literacy.  This translates into improved academics overall. This does not occur when someone just listens to music. These amazing biological changes require actually playing music. 

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This is a very musical bunch.  Ukulele aside, a full 50% of our current fifth grade students play some kind of instrument!     

That's a really remarkable statistic.

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Attempting the fingering on that very first chord.

Some palm trees and surfboards would be nice....

I stopped by the other day when some of the students were working on strumming and chord identification. With ukulele in hand, the teacher instructed the class.  "Show me the fingering for the F chord!" Little by little, the fifth grade students identified and landed on that F chord, strumming like an insistent chorus of tenacious bumble bees, all humming in the same determined key.

  
The students are having a great time tickling those strings. In the photo here, Kaiya is focused companionably on Will's great string work during "partner practice."

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Great progress is happening!  Click on 

the short video clip below to see the 

students of 5SH play a tune! 

Thank you, Mrs. Landes, for your big ideas! 

Lefties Club!

I’ve already begun to rationalize a birthday ukulele of my own. In fact, I might decide to spring for a grass skirt too.... 

*Photo credit: Courtney Reynolds 

Can You Hear Me Now?

It’s that magical time of year when we find out which students can hear us, which students cannot, and which of our fine cherubs are just choosing to blatantly ignore our verbal requests!

Pennsylvania School Health Law requires that all students in grades K-3 and 7 have a hearing test while on the Penn View campus of Dock Mennonite Academy.

Can you remember this kind of testing in school?  I remember it well and approached it with equal measures of solemnity and terror.  It was really dread of failure.  Striving to excel at every tone, I distinctly remember repeatedly and prematurely raising my hand in anticipation.  Much like those Olympic runners who eliminate themselves from competition because they literally jump the gun. Because most school nurses are nurturing creatures, I was never actually referred to my doctor for these incorrect responses. I do, however, remember more than a few gentle hands clasping my own waving appendage and returning it to its proper position at my side for the next tone.  “I know you are listening closely…just wait for the beep….” Ugh.
 

Waiting patiently for a hearing test.

For many years the screenings on our campus were accomplished by a team of Souderton District nurses.  With carefully planned scheduling, this competent team historically managed to screen roughly 250 students in a period of just 90 minutes. 

If you’ve ever been in the nurse’s office, you can just imagine the scene.  Eight or nine school nurses, each with their own audiometer and a line of several children at each temporary station, awaiting the chance to signal in response to beeps and buzzes.  Extension cords reaching to the stations from every possible outlet.  Wide student eyes, some apprehensive and others chomping at the bit for their time to shine.  

Small arms flapping and beckoning in a rhythmic upper body dance, a veritable gesturing stew-pot!  

Me… a clipboard in hand, my eyes darting around the room yet recurrently returning to the clock…. I’m sweating discreetly and hoping against hope that all of the classes arrive exactly on time lest they throw off the painstakingly arranged timetable.  Not that I’m a control-freak in any way…. It was my job to assign time slots and direct classes in and out of the door while simultaneously watching for the other nurses to signal screen failures and most importantly, to compel little pairs of noisy shuffling shoes and whispering children to immediately cease and desist.  Let’s just say, some children have not yet mastered the art of the whisper.  Their attempts at a delicate murmur come off more like an insistent snake delivering an urgent message via megaphone.  And there is always a toe tapper in the crowd….

While this organized chaos was really amazingly efficient, there were always a handful of students who simply could not manage to listen intently to the delicate sounds delivered because there was so much excitement to witness.  Closing one’s eyes is not easy when there are so many uncommon sights to see!  


The end result was that 20 or 30 distracted friends would need to return to me on a later date for a quieter session. One on one.   

This year, all of our students were tested in a more controlled environment- half by me and the other half by our nurse-helper, Mrs. Debbie Quinn of the Indian Valley Middle School (seen in the photo above).  








It was peaceful and flowed smoothly, thanks to our appointed “husher” and student-shuffler, Mrs. Linda Souder. She kept us all on task.

Hearing tests are serious business as seen below....

But there is celebration with success!

After testing, the nice quiet crew waited patiently in the hallway for the rest of the class to finish.  

Sometimes it's best to hear about it from the experts. 

Lydia knew what was going to happen when her class lined up for testing.  "She's gonna do the 
beep thing!"







               Matthew reports that the sounds 
               got "higher and higher!"






Riley knew exactly what to do.  "When the sound stops, I am going to put my hand down."  

None of this was new for seventh grader Drew.  "You just have to listen to the sounds.  I've done this before at the doctor's office too." 

Chloe thought the sounds were pretty loud!

The students were cooperative and attentive to the task at hand.






In fact, several students in grade levels not tested this year were a little disappointed not to have a chance to wear the headphones!

Sometimes cold symptoms and fall allergies interfere with results. A few of the students will have the chance to return again in November for one more screening before referral to their doctor. 

So for all of the Dock Mennonite Academy parents out there, rest assured.  If you think your child is having hearing issues when it is time to take out the trash or do some other thrilling household chore, there is always a way to be certain those young ears are functioning.  Email or phone the nurse's office for confirmation if you are having doubts!

Can you hear me now?  Yes, in fact, we CAN.  

Photo Credits Kathy Gordon; Student Quote Credits Alissa Messina