Sirius Coyote musicians presented musical performances for two assemblies at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Thursday, January 12.

The group is based out of Watertown, according to member Kathleen Sartor. Ms Sartor said for the past 30 years the group has been offering arts and educational programs throughout the Northeast. As she later told the second assembly of the day, the group also offers performances in Mexico.

For the two assembly presentations at Sandy Hook School, Ms Sartor was joined by Sirius Coyote members Giovanni Ciarlo and Dennis Waring.

The presentation was made possible by the Arts for Learning Connecticut program and the school's PTA.

The group played songs and shared information about the cultures the songs originated from and the subjects of the songs.

"We love animals. We're sure you guys do, too," said Mr Ciarlo, before the group performed a song about an iguana.

Later, when performing sounds to make the students feel like they were in the rain forest, Ms Sartor said, "The rain forest is an amazing place, and I hope you all get there some day." The rain forest, she said, has big beautiful butterflies and many varieties of animals. She also told the students the rain forest is responsible for many things, from making the air breathable for humans to chocolate.

"If we don't take care of our rain forests we won't have chocolate anymore, because it comes from the rain forest," said Ms Sartor to the students.

Later Mr Ciarlo riled up the students by saying, "How about everybody stand up and show me what you can do? Everybody dance!" Everyone began to dance in place.

For one song, the three musicians shared instruments they created based on instruments that cultures from different areas would have used, hundreds of years ago.