Catherine Cook’s Fall 2025 Music Club

The Day They Presented Their Tunes

Week One: Eleven Kids and No Projector

First day. Holden forgot the adapter for his computer. No screen projection. And the internet wasn't working.

Then eleven kids walked in. Pre-K all the way up to fifth graders. The biggest class of the semester.

This could have gone badly.

With so many students it was a bit more of a free for all with everyone just sort of exploring the website and playing all the games we have, Holden wrote.

But here's what he didn't write: panic. Frustration. Calling it a loss.

Instead: Despite all of that we all had a great time and I am excited to teach the kids this year.

Sometimes the best first days are the messy ones where everyone just figures it out together.

Week Four: The Pachelbel Challenge

Holden issued a challenge: make it all the way through Pachelbel Drive in Chordstruction, a game based on making chord progressions.

It's hard. Really hard.

They all were super focused trying to do it but none of them did today, Holden wrote.

Every single kid was challenged.

They enjoyed the challenge though.

That's the difference between a bad day and a good one. Not whether they succeeded, but whether they cared enough to keep trying. Students learned grit and determination.

They were super focused. They kept attempting it. They wanted to beat it even though they didn’t make it through that time.

Failure became the motivation, not the end point.

Week Eight: When They Presented to the Class

By November, eight weeks in, the kids had learned melody basics, harmony, rhythm, form. They'd played games, unlocked levels, competed against each other.

Then Holden gave them a project.

I had the kids do a fun little project in Melopedes, I had them write some little tunes and then we presented them to the class.

This is the moment. Not just composing music on a screen. Not just saving it and moving on.

Presenting it. Standing up in front of their classmates and sharing what they'd created.

Pre-K kids next to fifth graders, all playing their original compositions for each other.

Really fun day all together, Holden wrote.

He gave it a 10 out of 10.

What Changed Over Fourteen Weeks

From a chaotic first day with no projector and eleven kids exploring randomly, to kids confidently presenting original compositions to their classmates.

Along the way, they learned about instruments through Kahoots and Rocket Race. They all knew the instruments pretty well and I was proud of them, Holden noted in week five.

They got pretty locked in on Incredibox, creating layered musical arrangements.

They made beats in Beat Decoders and shared them with each other. The older kids in my class had a better time with rhythm Simon says, the younger kids seemed to be a little shy about sharing, but we all still had fun.

By week eight, even the shy kids were presenting their tunes to the class.

The Teacher Who Asked for Help

Holden had a wide age range. Kindergarteners who couldn't read yet. Fifth graders who were way ahead. Managing both in the same room is genuinely difficult.

My big challenge is to share my help and attention with all of the kids. My younger kids are in kindergarten and so they need a lot of help, they can't read really so I have to really direct them through it.

His solution?

In order to help everyone it's a great tactic to ask the older kids in your class to help with some of the younger kids! This also builds more bonds between the class.

The fifth graders became assistant teachers. The kindergarteners got one-on-one help. Everyone learned together.

By the time they presented their Melopedes compositions in week eight, it wasn't just individual kids showing off what they'd made. It was a class that had learned to help each other.