A Teacher Writes: May 2005 I'm a first year music teacher at a Christian school, and I was trying to show a group of kindergarteners how music is full of feelings. I played a song called "The Green Hill" for them. It's a sad Irish love song from Sharon Kennedy's storytelling CD. After the kids started getting pretty melancholy, I pulled out my Silkstone C PVC and started keening along. They were REALLY getting sad. One little girl even had a tear in her eye. So I stopped and asked if we should stop the song, and they yelled, "NO!" The little girl yelling the loudest. So we finished out the song, and then I said "My tin whistle can sure cry, but it can laugh, too!" And I broke into Miss McLeod's. Within seconds the kids were laughing and clapping along. Then I made a passable attempt at "Come Ye Thankful People Come," with Steve Harris' delightful intro, bridge and outro on his Gen F. The Silkstone has a somewhat darker sound, so I pulled out my tweaked Sweetone and had them laughing and clapping along in no time. And I got a chance to talk about how thankfulness can be one of the happiest feelings of all. I played the same music for the third graders, who would begin recorder music next year. I think we may have to switch to tin whistle. Connie S. Illinois - Thanks, Connie! Please keep us posted - Whistle and Squeak |
| Pennywhistles Afoot |
| Stories, pictures, letters, etc. about teaching pennywhistle to kids! |
| E-mail me if you have a story you'd like to share on this page, or if you are thinking about teaching pennywhistle, and would like to swap ideas. |
| Navajo Nation, 2004 Our summer 2004 mission took us to a Navajo church in New Mexico. This church worships in the Navajo language, and seeks to reach out their neighbors through service, teaching, and children's programs. On our busiest day, we had 87 children from the surrounding area at the church! |
 |
 |
| During our week with our Navajo friends, our team did construction, a Vacation Bible School, a sports camp, music ministries, and of course, whistle lessons! |
 |
|
| Pay no attention to that man behind the Oakleys! |
| You could hear whistlers practicing all week! |
| Please add your penny(whistle)'s worth! Send suggestions, questions, ideas, etc I'd appreciate your thoughts on how to make this a better resource. |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
| Casa De Esperanza Orphanage, Guatemala, Summer 2005 Whistle and Squeak sent four dozen pennywhistles with our friend Laura on her summer internship to the Casa De Esperanza Orphanage in Zacapa, Guatemala. Laura reports that the music teacher at the orphanage was pleased to receive the whistles and music resources. We are hoping to get a report from the music teacher soon. Watch this space for updates! |
|
| Western Welcome Week, Littleton, Colorado, August 2005 Whistle and Squeak, a member of the GracePoint Community Church worship band, played whistles (what else?) on the church's float in the WWW parade. We were loud! Later, the church staffed games, activities and crafts for children at the Western Welcome Week festival in downtown Littleton, Colorado. As a service outreach to the community, GPCC gave away 300 Meg pennywhistles with instructions and some quick pointers for the kids at the booth. We heard reports of families going home on the local light rail train with young whistlers, well, whistling and squeaking to the utter delight of their parents! |
 |
| Here we are next to the jumping castle, just prior to being run out of town by a mob of frazzled parents! |
 |
|
| February 19, 2006, Kathy writes, "Well, I survived it and so did the kids! It was fun and they did really well! I talked about whistles and the history first, showed them all my whistles, and then played a little for them, then I told them that I was going to pass out their whistles but they had to lay them on the table and wait until I told them they could blow on them and they actually listened! I bet there are going to be a bunch of parents mad at me. Before I let them play a song, I made each one take a turn blowing until they found the lower octave and they all did great! Then I taught them how to play a scale and then I taught them Hot Cross Buns and Merrily We Roll Along. Even the tiny kids. (3 of the kids aren't 4 years yet). There were 23 kids there tonight! Only one of the kids had a whistle before tonight." |
| February 18, 2006, Kathy writes, "Tomorrow night I have my first Kids For Christ Pennywhistle class. "I bought 25 black and silver Clark Megs from the whistleshop and I have tied strings with name tags on them all and I printed out tab 25 20-paged whistle books using the tab from Marks Whistle&Squeak site. "The kids that I will be teaching are from ages 4 to 16. I invited the youth to join us too. I am sure that if there enough whistles, the moms that have been staying to help with dulcimer will also want to learn whistle too." |