Oakville Elementary Students Learn to Play Ukulele

Fifth-graders at learned to play a new instrument during music class recently when Dr. Fred Willman, a music and education faculty member at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, hosted a special ukulele workshop for the students.

Willman, who served as the faculty adviser for Oakville Elementary School music teacher Karen Dickinson when she was earning her master’s degree, brought ukuleles for every student in the class to play during the workshop. The fifth-graders learned how to hold the instrument and the different placements for their fingers, and they used this knowledge to play the ukulele while singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and “Are You Sleeping, Brother John?”

“These workshops are fun for me because I don’t get to work with kids this age very much,” said Willman, who taught the workshops at the school at no cost.

During his ukulele instruction, Willman also explained to students about the origination of the instrument, the different sizes of the ukulele and why it was first used.

“I received several positive comments from students about the workshop. They told me how much fun they had playing the ukulele,” Dickinson said.