Bells help bring music back to classrooms

Students in Jennifer Mangan's fourth-grade class at Washington Elementary School play resonator bells purchased with grant funds in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Cloquet Education Foundation awarded money for the bells, which will get years of use in the classroom. With help from Washington's Partners in Education group, both music classrooms there are now fully equipped with bell sets. "During the Covid-19 pandemic, elementary music, as we know it, could not exist," said Washington music teacher Katy Buytaert. "No singing, no recorders and no dancing." But they could play bells, so a rush order was put in and students played songs, practiced rhythmic and melodic notation, study scales, and more. "It was so fun to make music in a safe and different way," Buytaert said.