Absolute joy. That’s how Monterey Park’s music teacher Leslie Crisfield describes the impact of the Musical Instruments for Multiple Literacies grant. It has given the students absolute joy.

“The variety of instruments we’ve been able to buy has added new colours and sounds to the overall timbre,” she says excitedly. “It’s like always drawing with the same colour crayons, but now we’ve been able to add the pastels and the neons.”

Before the grant from EducationMatters, Leslie says she had to run around town to borrow musical instruments from other schools so there would be enough for the students to play at the school’s first sixth grade graduation. Monterey Park now has class sets of many different instruments where there was only a “smattering” of before.

“It’s cool, now our whole class can play at the same time,” says grade 6 student Riley. “If kids don’t have drums or anything at home, they can come here and play. It’s great!”

The access to additional and unique types of musical instruments has helped the students explore new kinds of self expression. Monterey Park’s student population is 80 per cent ESL and with that many students speaking different languages, the need for communication that isn’t tied to language is strong.

“Our school philosophy tells us that good practice honours all forms of communication,” says Leslie. “We find music very honouring for children especially when English isn’t their first language. With the new instruments, they can create and express themselves through a different language.”

The school has purchased instruments from the orph family (xylophones and glockenspiels); cultural instruments like an ocean drum, bell chimes and French Canadian spoons; a drum kit; a ratchet,  which creates sound effects; and ukuleles. Leslie feels very strongly about the ukuleles.

“We use them for Canadian folk songs,” she says “and the Canadian folk songs have a wonderful richness. The students bring their own diverse sounds from their cultural backgrounds, but there is a common thread because we are all Canadian.”

The musical instruments allow the students to express their personalities, as well as their cultural identities. “With music, you can show what you know and what you like whether that’s upbeat or rock or pop,” says Riley. And with the new instruments at his school, Riley can express himself better than ever.

Looking for a grant to fund a student program like this? Contact Pamela Cook at EducationMatters at (403) 294-8249. Would you like more information about donating to these types of student projects? Contact Heather Hankins-Bruce at EducationMatters at (403) 294-8112.