By Reader Staff
The Festival at Sandpoint this month entered the third year of its Pre-K Outreach program, a free series of in-class lessons designed to engage students through rhythm, movement and song.
During each session, students focus on a specific rhythmic element while integrating new instruments. This rhythm-based approach helps students establish musical foundations between the ages of 3 and 6 years old, which program organizers stated is one of the largest gaps in music education nationwide.
The curriculum is tailored each year to work with existing music requirements in the local schools and introduce students to different instruments and genres of music.
Festival at Sandpoint Production & Education Manager Paul Gunter teaches a Selkirk School preschool student how to play the violin. Courtesy photo.
Pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teacher Sharon Williams reflected on Selkirk School’s experience with the Festival at Sandpoint’s Pre-K Outreach Program over the past year.
“[Festival Production and Education Manager] Paul Gunter visited our school once a week and presented lessons appropriate for three classes of young children,” she stated. “The needs of our three-schoolers differed greatly from those of our preschool and pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, and Paul addressed those needs with lessons that were dynamic, motivating and just plain fun for each specific group of children.”
Classes can be adapted to fit the school’s needs and can be integrated into the school day or offered as an after-school program.
“The Pre-K Outreach program from the Festival at Sandpoint is outstanding. It is unique in that very young children are actively engaged in learning about music,” Williams said. “We are extremely fortunate to have such an opportunity for our children in Sandpoint, and I am very grateful to have had these lessons at Selkirk School.”
The Festival in a news release thanked donors and volunteers to the nonprofit arts organization, as well as thanked the Idaho Community Fund’s Bonner County Fund for Arts Enhancement and the Community Assistance League for grants in support of education outreach efforts and the youth orchestra program in 2023.
The Festival at Sandpoint currently provides in-class sessions to Little Lambs and Selkirk School. For more information, contact [email protected] or 208-265-4554.
To learn more about the Festival at Sandpoint’s education programs and donate to support its nonprofit mission, visit festivalatsandpoint.com.
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