Students Will Hit The Right Notes With 4th Grade Band Return

LITTLE FALLS (WJON News) -- A music ensemble will make its return this fall after being away for over 25 years. Little Falls Community Schools is relaunching its 4th Grade Band this fall. Little Falls started kids in band at the 4th grade level from 1976 to about 1998, before it went away, and they started students in 5th grade instead. Lindbergh Elementary School's band teacher, Jessica Peterson, says they have been working on bringing the band back for a while:

"It's always been on our mind and brought up to them (school board), and so I think it was the right timing with how the district has been kind of reshuffling, and so it was just the right timing and a lot of advocacy for it."

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She says this first year will be challenging because she will have both 4th and 5th grade students starting band, but in future years, it will be easier and beneficial for the kids to start a year sooner. Little Falls is one of the few school districts in the state that starts students in band in 4th grade, and Pererson says that is pretty unique:

"I think starting a year early just helps students build their musical abilities and confidence, and also it's just a lot of social learning and individual learning of responsibility and teamwork that are always beneficial even a year earlier."

Peterson says the community is pretty excited to have the 4th Grade Band back, and she is looking forward to having the kids in the mass band concert in the spring. She says 4th and 5th Grade will each have their own band.

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