This blog post gives you ideas and suggestions to make an instrument petting zoo work for your open house or parent teacher conference.

October 23, 2014

Instrument Petting Zoo! Parent Teacher Conference Day Win!

Parent teacher conference days are always a struggle for me. I have 500 students and theoretically I could have 500 kiddos and their parents running into my room to ask about grades and standards and concerts. But that has never really happened. I’m usually lucky if 10 of those 500 come down to chat or check in or talk about anything. What to do to make those PT conference better for all involved!?

Parent contact is hard no matter where you are. You want to foster a good relationship with parents so that they trust you and believe that you know what you’re doing. You also want them to trust that you know how to teach their child and have their child’s best interest in mind. Building a relationship is hard when you see parents so infrequently. What makes things even more difficult is that almost all of the parents at my school speak Spanish as their primary language. With a language barrier like that, communication is difficult. Often the parents (and total honesty, me too) will avoid communication aside from a smile or “hello.” I only know broken Spanish and they know broken English and it’s scary for both of us to try and communicate. I knew that I needed some way to get parents in to the music room and make some good press. I wanted a solid positive experience on their minds so that they’re more apt to come to concerts, ask questions, and feel safe communicating with me.

So the instrument petting zoo was born! This is actually a take on something the Kansas City Symphony does here in our area. Symphony members will come out to elementary schools and bring 5-6 performers and instruments for the students to try out, hear, and learn about. It’s really cool to learn from an actual symphony musician about the instrument, how it works, and what it sounds like. Their passion for their instrument definitely translates into the interaction and students get a lot out of it. Read more about the KC Symphony’s petting zoo experience when you CLICK HERE. The only downside is that the symphony experience is expensive and doesn’t tell students about the instruments they use in class every day. I wanted to develop something like the petting zoo for our own school. I wanted students to get excited and involved and bring their parents into the room for an awesome, memorable experience.

Prep work — Figuring out the Logistics

Zoo Maps and Signs to help students and parents find their way around the petting zoo.

I made sure to tell each class the week before parent teacher conferences that the petting zoo was coming! I told them that like a real petting zoo, “where you get to feel and hear and look at different kinds of animals,” the instrument petting zoo was a place where you go to touch, play, and learn about instruments! “After your homeroom conference, grab your parents and come down to my room to try out a lot of different instruments. Just follow the signs!” Let me tell you, the idea of free reign with the instruments (not really, more about this later) brought so many running towards my room! They were definitely excited and had lots of questions that got the response of “Well you’ll just have to come down with your parents and find out! This was important! The point of this was for the kids to have fun and for their parents to be involved (monitoring kids and playing too)! I made sure to remind students over and over that they had to bring their parents with them to the petting zoo. It felt a little bit like the White Witch from Chronicles of Narnia… “Sure you can have more Turkish Delight IF you bring your brother and sisters back with you!” No matter. They got the point.

I made some really awesome signs that I then got them translated into English and Spanish. The gist, “Come down to the petting zoo after your conferences and try out the instruments! What fun!” I posted them around the school and set out another one in front of my room with big arrows pointing towards the zoo!

I’d done this zoo before and it was really awesome, but not quite as structured and I wanted it to be. Last time, kids were in and out and having a good time but they didn’t have anything to take away and didn’t have a clear path once they got to my room. It was just sort of a free for all and required a lot of “in the moment” reaction and teaching from me. There was a lot of “how do you play this” and “BANG BANG BANG” and “what am I supposed to do” that first year. I needed to add more structure and experiences.

Petting Zoo Kit – The Resources I used!

Click here to see all the resources that I bundled together for this event!

I worked really hard this last summer to think about what I needed in a Petting Zoo kit, what the students would like, what would add structure to the experience, and what might make this all a little easier. I created this kit with all of that in mind. Here’s what’s included

Publicity Signs I made these signs in English and Spanish and customized them so that they can say “come down after your conference” or “come down during open house” for those folks who might want to include the petting zoo during an open house night. These printed off easily and were eye-catching so that parents knew where to go.

Zoo Map This part was soooooooo helpful! The students came in and were handed a “map of the zoo.” Each instrument subgroup is labeled on the map and then at each new station there’s a pop-up poster that tells students where they are and where to find that on the map, sort of like a “You Are Here!” sign. I told each kid that they should visit every spot on the map and to check the box once they were done there. That gave them a finality that they didn’t have the time before. They could easily figure out what was left and if they’d been to each location. Students got to try out instruments at every location and then (below the map) they could write in their favorite instrument at each place. This also gave them a task to do and required that they write (a big deal at our school). Then they got to take the map home! Double bonus is that there were follow-up questions and sentence stems on the back of the map for those kiddos who could/would work ahead or for all kids to ponder and think about when they went home.

Meet the Instrument Posters These little guys were at each station so that when the students were done playing and experiencing the instruments they could refer back for when they wanted to write down which instrument was their favorite. I don’t have all my instruments labeled (because where would you label a triangle? An agogo bell?) and these helpful little posters made my job so much easier so that students didn’t keep asking “What is this?” but instead looked at the poster. It also helped out for some instruments like the agogo bell. They didn’t know how to play it at first but when they consulted the picture and saw a mallet with the instrument they understood and could move along quickly.

Site Posters As mentioned above, these posters sat at each place and told kids where they were and what instruments lived there. They were just a helpful “You are Here” device to help kids find the spot on their map and begin to see how the different groups went together.

“Can You Help Me Find My Family?,” “Find the Instruments,” and “Help Me Identify These Instruments!” games are included in the kit. I figured that with some schools a written activity might be nice and super helpful as an extension activity. I plan to use these as a follow up to the petting zoo NEXT week. I could use them printed out or on a PowerPoint easily! The petting zoo only really utilizes percussion instruments and these extra games go into the instrument families so that students can experience and work with brass, woodwinds, and strings as well.

Visiting the Zoo

The zoo went surprisingly well. I had just about 200 people the first day and about 100 the second. Considering the number of conferences that DON’T happen at our school (I’m not sure of any teacher at our school who sees the parents of all students… we’re lucky to get half of them, really) I think that’s a pretty great turnout. Some parents had to rush off after their actual conference because of work or childcare so the petting zoo was an extra that they couldn’t work into their schedule. But so many came out and had a FANTASTIC time with their kiddos.

Students entered the zoo, grabbed their map, and went to town! The were respectful of the instruments, explored sounds and how they can play the best, and had such huge smiles as they tried everything out. There were a few roped off areas with signs that said “Watch out! These instruments might bite!” I didn’t want to put all my barred percussion instruments out and so I only put one of each size of each instrument. These signs carried on the “zoo” theme and told kids that they needed to touch the instruments that were provided and leave these alone. The signs worked, no problems!

Speaking of adding to the zoo ambiance, I piped some zoo sounds through the classroom speakers in the ceiling and definitely got some smiles. The lion roar was a hoot but what was even more fun was when the orca sounds came on. They had no idea what to think of that! The sounds not only added to the ambiance but made it less awkward when the room is empty and a new family walked in or if there’s only one family they won’t hear dead silence and think they need to rush through.

Were there cringeworthy moments? Absolutely. When little preschool brothers and sisters grab mallets and head for the xylophones my natural tendency is to swoop. However. These instruments were MADE to withstand the brutal onslaught of Kindergarten through 5th graders on a daily basis. One kiddo out to make marimba madness will not ruin an instrument past repair. Besides, the point is to get them interested and excited and let them explore. When do we ever have time for that in our daily classes? What a triumph when the preschool kiddo’s bigger brother or sister rushes over and grabs the mallets… to show their younger sibling how to hold them correctly. Or a moment later when they show the correct striking procedure, or how to play a bordun, or teach a quick melody. Moments like that outshine the moments of terror that my teacher heart feels. This petting zoo really helped me learn to relax and enjoy the exploration.

Favorite Moments from the Zoo: 2014

Big grins at the xylophones, metallophones, glockenspiels and ESPECIALLY the contra bass bars!
A mother telling me (as best she could) about seed pod rattles and how they were used/worn for dances in her home in Mexico during celebrations.
Parents looking at the ceiling and trying to figure out where the bird sounds are coming from.
Hundreds of smiling faces as they hit the gong!
Students leaving with Zoo Maps flapping in their hands as they talk about their favorite instruments.
Moms and Dads teaching “Twinkle Twinkle” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and other favorites on the pitched percussion.
Old students (middle schoolers now) coming back and sheepishly asking if they could do the zoo too!
A second grader teaching her 4 year old brother how to play the tubano (and him breaking into the biggest grin).
Parents and students leaving and saying audibly, “That was so much fun!”

I hope that this blog post inspired you a bit and let you in on what happened at my school. I hope also that it encouraged you to think about what you can do to get parents into your room and get everyone excited about music. If you’re interesting in the Instrument Petting Zoo that I made, you can find it HERE on my Teachers Pay Teachers page. Click through the gallery below to see some more pictures of the resources I used.