A Volunteer Brings Holiday Music to Oak View Kindergarteners

“It’s remarkable how little space 40 to 50 kindergartners take up and how loud they can be,” said Burke resident Phil Selz.

For the past three years, Selz has brought his guitar to the Oak View Elementary to perform for the kids. Selz’ wife Kathy, an Instructional Assistant with one of Oak View’s four kindergarten classes, came up with the idea in 2009.

Four classes each received a 15-minute performance. Selz invited the students to ask questions about his guitar. These ranged from “How many notes do you know?” and “Why are there stripes on your guitar,” to “Why does the string make sounds” and “What is the hole in the guitar for.”  The answers?

• “I mostly play chords [strumming to show them what a chord is] and probably know about 50.”
•  “The wood on this guitar is called Zebra Wood and it’s called that because it has those stripes.”
•  “The strings are like your vocal chords [has the kids all hold their fingers against their throat to feel the vibrations while they speak] and the vibrations make the noise.”
• “If the strings are the guitar’s vocal chords, the hole is its mouth. That’s where the sound comes from after it bounces around inside the body.”

After he answered their questions, Selz had the kids join in singing “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “The Dreidel Song.”  The teachers and instructional assistants for each of the four classes had worked with their students in preparation for the concert, making sure they know the words and the tunes.

This year, Selz added a new twist, inviting the kids to suggest things their dreidels could be made of, and then coming up with a new rhyme, which they all sang together. The suggestions included: wood, string, paper, fish, sharks, and hot cookie dough.