[Photo left to right: Lynette Boosey, music teacher; Del Medina Master Ukulele teacher; Mark, 10 year old student of Del & Lynette; and Charlotte Kobayashi of CVI]
Lynwood Elementary School’s music program is more than flutes, clarinets and trumpets. On March 20th, the school held a “kanikapila” which is Hawaiian for everybody bring your ukulele and jam! Almost 90 students with ukuleles played music and sang together for 2 one-hour long assemblies for the students and the administrators with the Pacific Island Coastal Cultures Organization (PIKO). Corporate Visions through matching donations has contributed $200 to PIKO which translated into two ukuleles for Lynwood Elementary School.
Lynnette Booséy, Lynwood music teacher and ukulele player, introduced ukuleles to the school in 2014 [a year ago] with the purchase of 30 uke’s using grant money. This winter [2014], she received a donation of 6 more uke’s from Kala, a ukulele company headquartered in Petaluma. This January PIKO presented Ms. Booséy with 10 brand new ukuleles, tuners, and cases for Lynwood.
The students with the core adult ukulele team played for a whole hour, songs like Three Little Birds, Koke’e, Hanalei Moon, and Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Izzie style.
Additionally, Charlotte Kobayashi of Corporate Visions, taught the teachers and principal of the school a basic hula called, “In a Canoe”; they learned 4 basic hula steps and hand motions to interpret the song. “I only live in memory of all the things I used to do. Back on the shores of Waikiki, in a canoe… I used to sing a melody, to all the fishes that I knew, as I go paddling out to sea, in a canoe…” The students had a great time watching their teachers and principal learning how to hula for the first time!
The ukulele, first brought into Hawaii from Portugal, is now becoming a very popular instrument for many elementary and young students who find this instrument easy to carry, easier to learn than a guitar and quite affordable. There are several “kanikapila’s” happening in various cities in California such as Santa Cruz, Sebastopol, Petaluma, Santa Rosa, Berkeley, Pleasanton, Hayward, and Fairfax.
For article and more photos, check link in Novato Patch:
http://patch.com/california/novato/ukuleles-abound-at-lynwood-elementary-school
[By Charlotte Kobayashi]
that is my school and we had a kanikapila two weeks ago.