Music lessons and projects

I went to a public school in Pocos de Caldas. The children attending the school are aged between 6 and 11. The school is completely funded by the government here. The director of the school didn't speak any English, but had kindly invited her son to interpret, which was very useful. I was able to watch a music lesson, which is taught weekly to each class by a teacher specifically trained to teach the music. They were learning different rhythms and performing them by clapping and playing large calves and shakers. The school had made the shakers themselves, using cups, stones/hard beans and the cup lid. The teacher played a song on the CD player for the children to clap and play along to. She explained that she had recently attended a course to teach this.

One of the class members had recently moved from The United States, so spoke English. He was keen to talk to me and find out what I was doing here in Brazil. He has lived here for 6 months and was already translating questions from the other children to me. It just shows how quickly children can learn another language.


We were then taken to another part of the school to see a music project for the children and the community also. They were doing 'Capoeira' which originates from Africa and is a tribal dance representing a fight. The teacher and another student were playing a wooden string instrument that created a tuned rhythm. The children stood in a circle, whilst 2 carried out the 'fight'. The rest of the group clapped along with the rhythm. All of the children seemed to really enjoy this and were very good!