St Louis Students See Outdoor Space Transformed into Creative Musical Environment

'Educate, Empower, Uplift' is the motto of Lift For Life Academy (LFLA), a charter school in St. Louis, MO. Their outdoor musical instruments in the playground help students achieve these three goals.

The LFLA offers educational services to students in grades six through twelve and operates independently from public school districts. It is a school focused on exploration and teaching with love and respect while fostering a strong sense of community. Proud of its students, the LFLA sees itself more as a family than just a school.

Marshall Cohen, LFLA Executive Director, and Co-founder, explains why he decided to invest in a musical outdoor area and outlines the benefits they are experiencing:

'I wanted the outdoor musical instruments to serve as reinvestment in exposing our younger students to music while adding new energy to the playground. Based in a relatively low-income area, many of our students are not exposed to musical instruments at home, and therefore, giving them a chance to play on real instruments during recess and lesson times would benefit not only their musical skills but also impact their social, linguistic, and behavioral development.

Being exposed to music from a young age has been proven to encourage interaction and teamwork, improve memory, self-confidence, and empathy, and support the development of communication skills. The basics of playing musical instruments help to build dexterity and motor skills amongst the students and are also a wonderful way to express who they are and what they are feeling. It was clear that outdoor musical instruments have the power to transform the culture of any playground and, in turn, the wider school, and we wanted to benefit from them at the 'LFLA'.

After finding few options for reliable outdoor instruments, I started considering that I might have to build my own. I wanted colorful life-sized outdoor musical instruments that would be robust enough to stand the year-round climate and be used enthusiastically by our students!

Furthermore, I wanted the instruments to be inclusive so that any student, regardless of their physical or musical skills, would be rewarded with lovely sounds.

Thankfully, I found the harmonized and robust musical instruments that I wanted through Percussion Play. When it came to deciding which outdoor musical instruments to go with, I prioritized instruments that could get the most students involved and were colorful and nature-themed to add a fresh new look to the school.'

'We now have a totally engaging creative outdoor space having selected two diatonic Rainbow Cavatinas, a Rainbow Trio Ensemble with bongos, metallophone, and chimes, and finally a ‘major’ bunch of Harmony Bells. The diverse range of instruments works to bring both musical harmony and accessibility to the outdoors. Being easy to play prevents any minimal musical understanding between the students from getting in the way of finding harmony in any combination of instruments being played. The Percussion Play instruments are geared towards everyone.

These outdoor instruments serve as a step toward focusing on exposing students to music at a young age. Our students have been able to interact with each other through the instruments, playing them in unison to form a greater sound. This experience heightens their understanding of audio and shows how music can bring them all together and add a further sense of community within the academy.

This new experience and sense of community among the students have been a success among the rest of the faculty. One teacher said, “A first-grader ran full speed and hugged me to say thanks and ‘this is so awesome!’” Words of appreciation and playful banter on who’s turn it is to play with an instrument have grown to be a common occurrence on the playground.

More recently, I have been working with our music teacher to better incorporate the outdoor musical instruments into the curriculum. We plan on implementing the instruments in future orchestral performances, allowing our 3rd-12th graders to explore percussive performance. The foundation of our program is learning through discovery, play, and exploration, and aspires to help create musicians that can become creative and professional contributors to music in the future.

Our biggest problem now is bringing in the kids from recess! Melodies can be heard, and our kids now have the opportunity to experience greater community and success through music.

Our students are often underserved and have not had the same musical experiences as others. These instruments allow them to not only create music but also to create beautiful music, potentially leading them to become the musicians of the future. Our outdoor musical instruments help our students find their own voice and space for creativity; they encourage our students to reach higher goals.

The playground equipment is fantastic. It features vibrant colors, is sturdy—truly sturdy—and, of course, the sounds are excellent.

Thank you for bringing sunshine to the playground!