Elephants are on the loose at Donegal Primary School, and they love to sit on teachers. But don't worry - these are imaginary elephants, and they're part of a song performed by Matt Wheeler in a recent virtual visit to a classroom. The Mount Joy-based musician has been serving as an artist in virtual residency at the school since March.

First-grade teacher Kim Garner proposed the idea of the residency after the school learned about grant money offered through the Donegal Foundation. "We wanted to give the students another outlet to find joy in this crazy time," she recalled, noting that she coordinated the effort with teachers from kindergarten, first grade and second grade, along with the school's principal and Wheeler. "This has been a great way for the kids to channel their emotions."

Wheeler, whose son attended Donegal Primary School, is a singer-songwriter and had performed music assemblies at the school before, but this is the first time he'd done a residency like this one.

Working with music teacher Taylor Morgan, Wheeler came up with the idea of "Music Mondays with Mr. Matt," a 10-week series of short videos that aired during morning announcements, complete with its own jingle.

He noted that Morgan helped to determine the content of the videos. "She sent me a bunch of ideas, and then we keyed in on songwriting specifically," Wheeler stated. "We boiled it down to three challenges: adding a new verse to a song that already exists, adding motions to a song you already know and taking a book or poem and making a song out of it. The series was meant to get the students experimenting with songwriting and performing songs."

Morgan, who jumped right into the project despite only being hired as the music teacher in February, said the residency was well received by both teachers and students. "It's been such a pleasure and so much fun to work with the students and to be able to work with Matt," she said.

Along with Wheeler's residency, the grant provided money to purchase instruments for the classes, including tambourines for kindergarten, bell bracelets and egg shakers for first grade and rhythm sticks for second grade.

Kindergarten teacher Victoria Diminick said her students were overjoyed at the chance to "meet" Wheeler when he concluded his "Music Mondays with Mr. Matt" with a virtual classroom visit. He virtually visited each classroom to perform songs and to enjoy performances by students. "It was like he was a famous person," she remarked. "They had so many questions for him, like whether he writes his own music, what instruments he plays, and so on. They have gotten so much out of this."

Wheeler, who plays in a band called Matt Wheeler & Vintage Heart and released his most recent album in May, said he hopes the students took away some academic knowledge about songwriting, but most of all, he wants them to realize the joy music adds to life.

"Without (music), life is so much less," he stated. "Music makes life joyful and worth living. I hope this experience has helped the students to really embrace music."