The Foun­tains of Uke pro­gram is a project based out of Hamil­ton, Ontario which con­nects old­er adults liv­ing in retire­ment and long-term care homes with local ele­men­tary stu­dents. The goal of this project is to fos­ter inter­gen­er­a­tional con­nec­tions using music as a tool to do so.

Key Process­es

The Foun­tains of Uke pro­gram includes a total of six vis­its between facil­i­ta­tors and par­tic­i­pants. This helps achieve the goal of inter­gen­er­a­tional con­nec­tion by hav­ing mul­ti­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties for par­tic­i­pants to inter­act. It also allows pro­gram facil­i­ta­tors to tai­lor their musi­cal activ­i­ties to the spe­cif­ic per­son­al­i­ties with­in their pro­gram group.

While there is one over­ar­ch­ing goal of this project (inter­gen­er­a­tional con­nec­tions through music), there are mul­ti­ple means to this end. Music is used in a vari­ety of ways with­in the pro­gram to fos­ter connections.

Why the Ukulele? 

Ukulele (“Uke” for short) is part of the name of the pro­gram because it is one of the main ways that music is used in dif­fer­ent activ­i­ties with­in the pro­gram. The ukulele is part of the ele­men­tary music cur­ricu­lum in Ontario, which means that ele­men­tary school par­tic­i­pants get to take their learn­ing out­side of the for­mal class­room to a com­mu­ni­ty space. The ukulele is an acces­si­ble instru­ment as it can be used in mul­ti­ple ways (strum open, play like a drum, play col­lab­o­ra­tive­ly with a friend, etc.) which makes it a great option for fos­ter­ing con­nec­tions between pro­gram participants.

Facil­i­ta­tor Competencies

Pro­gram facil­i­ta­tion skills: facil­i­ta­tors of this pro­gram must have excel­lent pro­gram facil­i­ta­tion skills, as they are man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple peo­ple with diverse inter­ests, needs, and capac­i­ties. Typ­i­cal group sizes are 6–10 ele­men­tary stu­dents and 3–8 old­er adults per group.

Inter­per­son­al skills: com­mu­ni­cat­ing effec­tive­ly with par­tic­i­pants and co-facil­i­ta­tors is a crit­i­cal skill to be a suc­cess­ful Foun­tains of Uke facil­i­ta­tor. Rec­og­niz­ing and sup­port­ing folks through emo­tions or mem­o­ries that come up dur­ing music-based pro­gram­ming in a dig­ni­ty-giv­ing way helps ensure the pro­gram space is com­fort­able and safe for all.

Cre­ativ­i­ty: Facil­i­ta­tors get to know their par­tic­i­pants dur­ing the first ses­sions. Think­ing cre­ative­ly about how to infuse future pro­gram activ­i­ties with par­tic­i­pants’ inter­ests and skills can help build rap­port and con­nec­tion between the generations.

Sam­ple Activ­i­ties and Pro­gram Struc­ture #1

1 — Wel­come and Intro­duc­tion Activ­i­ty – “this or that MUSIC”. Facil­i­ta­tors bring pho­tos or sound clips of two (or more) oppos­ing musi­cal enti­ties. Par­tic­i­pants pick their choice from the two or more items, and dis­cuss. Facil­i­ta­tors may prompt par­tic­i­pants to pick their favourite choice, least favourite choice, most inter­est­ing choice, etc., based on the needs and capac­i­ties of the group. For exam­ple, facil­i­ta­tors could share a pho­to of a sym­phon­ic orches­tra play­ing and a pho­to of a per­son play­ing a ukulele on a beach. A sec­ond exam­ple, two sound clips: one of a song poten­tial­ly more famil­iar to the old­er par­tic­i­pants (Elvis, Glen Miller, Bing Cros­by, etc.) and a song poten­tial­ly more famil­iar to the stu­dents (Dis­ney hit, main­stream pop, movie sound­track); you may also choose two dif­fer­ent songs famil­iar to the old­er adults, the chil­dren will have impor­tant rea­sons for their choice even if they are not famil­iar with the music! Facil­i­tate dis­cus­sion once all par­tic­i­pants have shared their choice. Divide into small groups as appropriate.

2 – Music Bin­go – divide the group into mul­ti­ple inter­gen­er­a­tional teams. Using pre-made bin­go cards with song titles or artists or lyrics from songs, invite each group to fill out their bin­go card as the facil­i­ta­tors play excerpts from a pre-arranged playlist. This activ­i­ty can be extend­ed beyond the first team who gets bin­go by set­ting a goal of hav­ing a team achieve the most num­ber of squares.

3 – Ukulele Show and Tell – ele­men­tary stu­dent par­tic­i­pants part­ner with an old­er adult with the goal of intro­duc­ing their ukulele to them. Depend­ing on the age of the ele­men­tary stu­dents, facil­i­ta­tors may pro­vide a short lists of all the “ele­ments” of the ukulele to share with the old­er adults (for exam­ple – strings, tun­ing pegs, body, frets, spe­cif­ic chords). In sub­se­quent ses­sions, this could be scaf­fold­ing for a Learn A Song Togeth­er activity.

4 – Good­byes and Clos­ing – inter­gen­er­a­tional pairs are invi­tied to share one thing they learned or appre­ci­at­ed about the ses­sion. They are then invit­ed to share some­thing they are look­ing for­ward to about their next vis­it. Facil­i­ta­tors com­plete an all-group wrap-up.

Sam­ple Activ­i­ties and Pro­gram Struc­ture #2

1 – Wel­come and Intro­duc­tion Activ­i­ty – facil­i­ta­tors play 3 x 1‑minute excerpts from upbeat songs and invite par­tic­i­pants to have a dance par­ty. Depend­ing on the group and indi­vid­ual capac­i­ties, facil­i­ta­tors may invite ele­men­tary stu­dents to dance through the group and find and wave at one of their old­er adult friends from the pre­vi­ous vis­it. If appro­pri­ate, this can be an open-end­ed free dance par­ty for all par­tic­i­pants and facilitators.

2 – Learn­ing a Song Togeth­er – divide the group into sev­er­al inter­gen­er­a­tional teams. If pos­si­ble, a 4:2 or 5:2 ratio of chil­dren to old­er adults seems to work well. Hand out large print chord/lyric sheets to a song famil­iar to the old­er adults, such as (but not lim­it­ed to): You Are My Sun­shine, Row Row Row Your Boat, Skip to my Lou. Ensure that the chords used in the song are ones that the ele­men­tary stu­dents are learn­ing in their music class. Con­nect with the ele­men­tary music teacher to review song choice and asso­ci­at­ed chords. The goal of the activ­i­ty is for the chil­dren to learn to play the song on their ukule­les, with the sup­port of the old­er adults, who can sing along, hold the chord/lyric sheets and point to where the kids are in the song, etc. Facil­i­ta­tors may need to pro­vide vary­ing lev­els of sup­port to each group, depend­ing on their capac­i­ties, con­nec­tions form­ing, and com­fort on the ukulele and singing! Pro­vide sup­port­ive eye con­tact, encour­age­ment, and direct facil­i­ta­tion as needed.

3 – Per­for­mance – invite each small group to per­form their song for the rest of the par­tic­i­pants and facil­i­ta­tors. Depend­ing on the needs of the group, you may choose to have one large-group per­for­mance, or sev­er­al small group per­for­mances. Facil­i­ta­tors can sup­port per­for­mances as appropriate.

4 – My Musi­cal His­to­ry – work­ing in the same inter­gen­er­a­tional groups, the goal of this activ­i­ty is to talk about musi­cal expe­ri­ences that have been mean­ing­ful to each par­tic­i­pant, and to move from struc­tured prompt-based con­ver­sa­tion into more free-flow­ing con­ver­sa­tion. This will indi­cate bridg­ing of inter­gen­er­a­tional gaps. Facil­i­ta­tors can pro­vide sev­er­al cue cards to each group, with one dis­cus­sion prompt writ­ten on each card. For exam­ple, here are three dis­cus­sion prompt ideas: 1) What musi­cal instrument(s) have you played before? If you have not played an instru­ment before, what instru­ment would you be inter­est­ed in try­ing? 2) What is a mem­o­ry in your life that has music as a part of it?  3) What does music mean to you? You can invite each group to work through the prompts at their own pace.

5 – Good­byes and Clos­ing – work­ing in the same groups, par­tic­i­pants are invit­ed to share some­thing they learned dur­ing the ses­sion today and share their good­byes. Facil­i­ta­tors com­plete and all-group sum­ma­ry and closing.

Prac­ti­cal Advice for Implementation

Part­ner­ship con­sid­er­a­tions: it is ide­al to engage a school and a care home that are in walk­ing dis­tance from each oth­er. This allows the ele­men­tary stu­dents to walk to the care home for pro­gram ses­sions, reduc­ing finan­cial and logis­ti­cal bar­ri­ers to pro­gram participation.

Sched­ul­ing: con­sid­er that both the school and care home may have sched­ule con­straints. Build in lots of time to con­firm the sched­ule with lead­ers at each space pri­or to a tar­get start date.

Con­tin­gency plan­ning: it is very pos­si­ble that ses­sions will need to be mod­i­fied or resched­uled for var­i­ous rea­sons (out­breaks and inclement weath­er to name a few). Main­tain­ing good com­mu­ni­ca­tion with con­tacts at the school and home lead­ing up to ses­sions will ensure all par­ties are on the same page about the plan. Get cre­ative if you face bar­ri­ers. For exam­ple, if inclement weath­er pre­vents the kids from trav­el­ling to the care home, con­sid­er send­ing some facil­i­ta­tors to the school and some to the home so that all par­tic­i­pants can still engage in a mod­i­fied program.