Children at Bryan Elementary School in Kimberly typically fill the air with shouts and squeals as they play on their playground.

But now, some of the sounds they make have more of a musical ring to them.

A grant from a national home-improvement store chain paid for the school to install outdoor drums and chimes — similar to a xylophone, but vertically oriented — for use during playtime.

The five drums look a little like tall pipes such as those in between a parking lot and a door at a big-box retail store, but the tops have all-weather tops that produce different pitches, depending on the drum diameter.

Music teacher Emily Cagle applied for the grant from the Lowe’s Toolbox for Education program. That grant provided $4,750 for the purchase and installation of the instruments. Parents and volunteers installed them over the summer.

Cagle said that not only do regular students have fun with the instruments, but it specifically benefits their autistic students — in fact, that’s why she applied for the grant.

“This is specifically for autistic children who struggle with the chaos that is a playground,” she said.

The instruments, as well as the rest of the playground, are also used after school and on weekends by community residents, Principal Debra Campbell said.

The Lowe’s grant is one of several that Cagle has won for Bryan in recent months. The school also received a $10,000 electric hybrid piano through a Keys + Kids grant from cable television channel VH-1, plus a $1,000 grant from WIAT-42 television and another $990 for classroom drums from the Jefferson County Schools Foundation.

“We’re not a Title I school, so we don’t get money from some federal programs that’s available for other schools,” Cagle said. “We have to get money for these in creative ways.”

(“Title I” is a federal designation that usually applies to schools with a high percentage of students who receive free or reduced-cost lunches.)