In the Music Makers Around the World Classes, the children learn about the culture of a particular group of people, studying their music, dances, foods, games, and stories.  In the first class of each semester, the children look at the map of the area/group they are studying. Class content includes lots of drumming, ensembles, 'structured' dances (like the Irish Jig!) and more reading and writing of music patterns.  In addition they "discover"  tonal and rhythmic patterns in written music, starting the process of learning to decode musical language.  They also start to compose simple rhythmic and tonal pieces with flashcards!  Quite impressive for 5-8 year olds!!