Toe tapping and hand clapping – what a great way to wrap up the month of February.  And that is exactly how more than 100 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders at Joseph Shanklin Elementary School  started their day on Monday, February 28 in their gymnasium - with Appalatin.  And a couple hundred more students at the school joined them live on Zoom.  It’s hard to imagine a more invigorating way to start a day or to end a month.
When Principal Elizabeth Rivera saw this season’s Friends of Music lineup, she immediately said she wanted Appalatin.  Her Title 1 school has a large Spanish speaking student population, and she knew that her kids would love and relate to the indigenous songs and musical instruments from South and Central America that Appalatin sings and plays.  And how right she was!  Right from the well-known first song, “Guantanamera,” (“Woman from Guantanamo”) to which they were swinging and swaying with the rhythm, through “Canta Mi Gente” (“Sing My People”), in which they sang the title refrain to each verse, to the last number, “Carro Loco” (“Crazy Car”), to which they were dancing with their friends and teachers, they were fully engaged.  And all the while toes were tapping and hands were clapping.