Warm weather and tests mean outdoor classes

On a warm Monday afternoon, people driving by the soon-to-be Wilson Elementary School Building may have noticed groups of middle schoolers beating on buckets with drumsticks.

The nice weather and a test scheduled in their normal classroom resulted in students from the general music class having an opportunity to learn in the sunshine.

Jill Carpenter, the teacher for the class, said the weather was perfect to host classes outside.

That day, students were learning about drumming and maintaining a beat with a song.

A majority of the students used plastic buckets as makeshift drums, using drumsticks to tap along with the beat of a song.

Students also took turns conducting the group, holding letter cards representing which beat the drummers should follow. The students, in the course of a class period, transformed from barely following along with the song to matching the drumbeat almost perfectly.