BUTLER TWP — Students at McQuistion Elementary School heard music this morning when they stepped off their buses.

About 60 third and fourth graders were dressed in festive attire and singing songs like “Deck the Halls.”

The students were led by music teacher Carrie Persichini, who previously did the event with fifth and sixth graders before the district consolidation moved those grades to Butler Middle School.

Many of the students are younger siblings of students who were able to sing the carols before and were excited to be able to sing at an earlier age, Persichini said.

Peter Zulick, a third grader, was excited to sing and to welcome his classmates to school, according to his mother Debby Zulick, who joined other parents at the school to watch the Wednesday performance.

Persichini likes the shift to singing carols with younger students because they tend to be less shy and inhibited, which fifth and sixth graders often can be.

“They’re more energizing and willing to be out there in front of their peers,” she said.

Persichini is glad to have younger students involved because she considers it a huge confidence boost for students. The fourth graders are now the oldest students at the school so this lets them be role models and leaders for the younger students, she said.

These students are part of a new group at McQuistion, called the Music TEAM, Teaching Everyone Acceptance through Music, created by Persichini. The music program hopes to create a positive school community and has helped with the effects of consolidation, Persichini said.

The school is in the Butler School District.