McGuffey students study a different instrument family in music each grade. Third graders have been learning about and exploring woodwind instruments of the orchestra: oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, flute and piccolo. They learned that in order to be considered a woodwind, the instrument must be played with either breath traveling over a mouthpiece (the flute and piccolo) or through a cane reed (the oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and saxophone). To give them the experience of one of those distinguishing features, these students had an opportunity to make their own double-reed from a straw. They learned that the shape needs to be pretty precise and were reminded that the shorter the instrument (or straw), the higher the pitch. They also learned that using a reed takes lots of practice and is best learned with copious amounts of laughter.
