The fun of our Summer Kids Events never seems to end as this week we welcomed back Gerry from Guitars in the Classroom for a special “Beats and Rhythm” class. Every child who attended received their very own special set of wooden maracas and with the help of Gerry, they learned all about the instruments origins, sounds and how to play them during sing-a-long time. We learned that maracas make a similar sound to rattlesnakes and that everyone, no matter what age, can learn to play them. After an intense maraca jam session, we put on our crafty thinking caps and pulled out the brightest colors of paint we could find to turn our plain-jane maracas into groovy colorful ones. The kids personalized their instruments with stripes of all colors and took them home to dry where hopefully they continue on their musical journey. Although we worked with mini maracas, those kids sure knew how to get a big sound out of them when they played them all together. Thanks to Gerry and his wife for teaching us and for helping out with the crafting portion. See you at next weeks event where we’ll invite the Phoenix Zoo and perhaps a furry friend or two!

Check out the Flickr photos here.