Getting Funky at North Hampton School
By: Tricia Markey
Messages of recycling, saving the earth, and reusing materials, echoed throughout North Hampton School this past week, as fourth and fifth graders spent a weeklong residency with Jeff Erwin and his Trash Can Lids Productions. Common objects, tossed into the trash or discarded, were transformed into musical instruments in the program Junk to Funk. The 4th and 5th grade students created rhythms, rapped, and sang in a final performance put on for the school and community on Tuesday, May 21st. Students loved the experience and seeing how you could take something like an old frying pan, or barrel of a laundry drying machine and turn it into something valuable that makes music.
Jeff Erwin, a master musician, founded Trashcan Lid productions in 1998 and has been working with schools for decades. “TLP is an environmentally and socially conscious organization that offers a variety of programs for youth.” The musicians offer programs including Junk to Funk and Sticks and Stones, which sends messages of anti-bullying, kindness, and empathy.
This was an invaluable experience for the kids, with unique learning opportunities for all. Students walked away feeling amped, seeing how trash could be transformed and how they can spread positive messages through music.