*PHOTOS* Carver Elementary School Students Jam Out on Ukuleles During Jam Fest Celebration

CARVER — The sound of a hundred ukuleles played by Carver Elementary School students filled the air during the school’s Jam Fest on Friday evening.

Over 1,000 attendees came together to enjoy an evening filled with music, food trucks, vendors and more on Friday, June 2 at the Carver Elementary School in celebration of the end of the school year. The event was hosted by the Carver Elementary School PTO.

The evening kicked off with 115 students in grades 3-5 performing seven pop songs on the ukulele in the school’s courtyard. During their 35-minute performance, overseen by music teacher Katharine Krampf, students played renditions of “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers, “Meant to Be” by Bebe Rexha, “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift, “Sunflower” by Post Malone, “Iko Iko” by Justin Wellington, and “Thunder” by Imagine Dragons, before ending with a performance of “Best Day of My Life” by American Authors.

Students learned how to play the songs on their ukuleles during the school’s Ukulele Club, which meets every Friday morning in the spring. The club was established last year by Krampf with the goal of teaching students how to refine their motor skills into making music. This is the second year the group will be performing at the end-of-year celebration event.

“I would like to thank the Carver Elementary School PTO for providing our students with the opportunity to play their ukuleles in front of a large crowd at the end-of-year celebration,” Krampf said. “The support from the PTO, school administration and Carver community allows me to continue to offer new musical opportunities for our students, and I couldn’t be more thankful. I encourage any student interested in learning a musical skill to join our group, and any community member looking to get involved to volunteer at the school and within our music program.”

Following the ukelele performance, the Carver Elementary Band and Chorus and student performers from Carver Middle High School also performed.

Throughout the night, attendees also had the opportunity to play lawn games, enjoy food from local food trucks and browse vendor tables. There was even a local Alpaca farm that hosted a petting zoo for families to enjoy.

The Carver Elementary School PTO hosted its own vendor table featuring Carver Coyote and music program gear. At the PTO table, attendees could enter a raffle and win prizes from each vendor in attendance. The biggest raffle prize was for students to “pie” Krampf and physical education teacher Sean Allaire at the end of the night.

“The Carver Elementary School PTO has yet again exceeded our expectations of what another great end-of-year celebration would look like with this year’s event,” said Superintendent Knief. “Events like this and the support we receive from our PTO allow us to further build community and host enjoyable events not just for our students, but their families as well. The event itself was outstanding and I hope that our students carry memories of this celebration with them throughout the summer.”

Get Involved

Carver Elementary School is always open to accepting new volunteers. To become a volunteer, guardians must attend training, complete a CORI form at the school, and fill out a volunteer application that indicates how they would like to help.

Trained volunteers are able to volunteer at the school in various capacities such as chaperoning field trips, volunteering in the classroom and assisting at school events, including PTO events.

To learn more, call Carver Elementary at 508-866-6845.

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