On April 16th, Coral Canyon Elementary had a Celebration of the Arts after regular school hours on a Friday afternoon. It was 90 minutes long, and was an amazing day. A big majority of the student body of 620 came back with their parents to participate. We estimated probably 400 students and another 300 parents and family members attended. We had the teachers display a large amount of the student’s artwork. Some were from class projects, and some from Mrs. Dodge’s Art class. They do amazing work. The district brought us eight art display boards that we filled as well. The student body had all made butterflies as a tribute to one of our first grade teachers that just passed away with cancer. We called it our “Butterfly Garden.” It filled our lobby and went down the halls. We had many strung on fishing line across the ceiling as well. It was beautiful.
I made some nice frames from mat board, and printed about 40 photos from my Film Techies’ work. I had 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10 prints. The display also had a poster explaining the different shots we learned in shot composition, with examples of each. It looked very professional. I had each print labeled with who took the photo and tried to include each student that was in the classes.
The choir (not under my direction) performed to start off, and later fifth grade performed a waltz and then had their parents come out and waltz with them. I taught all of fourth grade the Virginia Reel, our state dance. We only had about 15 of the 100 fourth grade students not show up and dance. For an after school program, that was outstanding! They were totally wonderful! It seems no matter how rough the rehearsals go, they always seem to pull it off with flying colors when they have an audience to perform for. We also had six of our school storytelling winners retell their stories in the library where people could come in and listen.
Third and second grades have done two rounds of Reader’s Theatre in my drama classes. The teachers chose two groups that they wanted to perform, and they performed in their own classrooms for their parents. They did a great job. They are very expressive and love to perform. I make sure they all have some sort of mask or hat or other small costume piece, and they feel like a movie star.
Then first grade did a whole grade reenactment in the gym of a book entitled “Giraffes Can’t Dance,” by Giles Andreae. I have enough costumes from past plays that I was able to get costumes or masks on all 115 students. We had learned it as separate classes, and then the teachers let them choose which animal they wanted to be, and each group of animals came out to do a dance. The jungle dance at the first featured a jungle band with African drums and other rhythm instruments. The whole grade got out there and boogied. Then the Warthogs waltzed, the Rhinos Rock and Rolled, the Lions tangoed, etc. We did easy little instructions for each separate dance and they mainly just acted! It’s a great book; I would recommend it to any teacher looking for a fun story to act out. They were very cute, and the parents loved the performance.
The afternoon ended with a screening of this semester’s Film Techies films and stop-motion. Everyone seemed to love them. We also aired them on the news again this week. It was an enormous amount of work, but well worth it. The parents love to see their children perform. It is a requirement of the BTS grant program I teach under, and I look forward to an even better celebration in the future.
All I can say is …”WOW!” This is amazing! In my school we never have events like this. If we did, we would probably have about 5% of our parents actually show up. The only time we have about 10-15% of our parents show up is if it is our winter/spring concert. The parents are usually of the students in the younger grades in kindergarten through second grade. Any other time that we may have a better turn out, the event has to advertise free food! Knowing this, I keep our bare walls filled with artwork created by our students on a daily basis. One way I try to get student work recognized is by quickly putting their work on display once it is completed. At least this way, as our parents/visitors walk toward the main office of the building, they can see how our students are participating in the arts.
ReplyDeleteLike Roxanne put it, “WOW!” It is so great to hear that your school participated in an afternoon celebration of the arts. And that so many of the students and parents were involved. And what seems even more exciting is that regular edu teachers integrated lessons with the arts teaches. In a time where it seems like different things are negatively impacting the arts and even closing down art programs, I am so glad to hear that you and your school showed everyone the importance of the arts. Bravo!!!
ReplyDelete-Tessa