Red Hook Central School District

EASEL Encouraging Artistic Sensibilities Enhances Learning

Volume 7, Issue 7

July 2011 By Isabel San Millan (Fifth Grade)

For the past three years, storyteller and musician Story Laurie (Laurie McIntosh) has been giving fourth grade students the chance to learn their families’ stories and incorporate those stories into songs. Students make personal connections to our nation’s history because Story Laurie helps them understand their own family stories are part of history.

Immigration is the subject of this arts-in-education unit, and students use interviewing and song writing skills. The students’ stories (their families’ immigration stories), their voices, and Story Laurie’s guitar are the materials used in this project.

“As the kids see their song take shape, they get excited because they see their own creativity at work,” says Story Laurie. Her favorite part of the residency is witnessing that

excitement and hearing all the voices sing a song they have written together.

Erin, from Mrs. Clark’s class, thought that it was fun learning about family stories and hearing about some of the things their ancestors might have done. Story Laurie told the story of her own grandmother coming to America from Italy. She even used

some Italian words in telling her story.

“After sharing where our families came from, we made our stories into a song and sang it to the other fourth grade classes,” said Erin. She would like to do the song again, but make it a

little different.

“Families did some special things,”

added Erin.

Story Laurie teaches many things to her students while having a fun time

with them.

Discovering Our Past

Rhythms to

Delight

2

West African

Dance

2

Puppetry

Comes Alive

3

“Flival-Flavel”

3

Creative

Career Puppets

4

Return of

Swing Dancing

4

Young Artists

at Olana

5

Inside this issue:

Brazilian Dancer

Extraordinaire

5

Photographer: Isabel San Millan

During our dancing, the artists kept the drum beat, with some students helping them keep an upbeat rhythm. Later in the dance they split our class, with half of us drumming and the other half dancing.

By Jessica Zulch (Seventh Grade)

In our physical education class, dancers and drummers Pam and Mimo Camara came to our school and taught us about expressing ourselves through dancing and drumming. They had us learn African dance routines by breaking down the parts for us. After the dance artists were certain we had the routine down, they put all of the moves together to form a traditional African dance.

Pam and Mimo Camara even added a little history to our lesson about the life of Mr. Camara in Guinea. Along with learning about Guinean culture, dance, and drumming rhythms, we also learned how to say “wunawali,” which means thank you in the Susu language. That is exactly what we all said to the Camaras after they had taught us a mean-ingful and interesting lesson about African culture.

By Olivia Ranieri & Kelsey Ball

(Fifth Grade)

In March we went to visit Mrs. Houston’s second grade class. The students were partici-pating in an arts-in-education unit with Pam and Mimo Camara, and their friend, Rebekah. The students were taught African drumming, dancing, singing, and the rhythm of “sinta.” Rebekah taught them the drumming and the dancing, Pam Camara taught them the singing and the rhythm, and Mimo Camara helped with the drumming.

First, we interviewed two students from Mrs. Houston’s class. Avianna said the arts unit made her think of dancers. She said it was exciting because they were taught to dance, sing, drum, and play the rhythm of sinta. She also said she would like to sing and drum again. Derek said the program made him think about different coun-tries. He told us the teachers made it special because they taught him how to drum, how to dance, and how to sing. Derek said he would like to drum again.

Next, we interviewed Mimo and Pam Camara. They have been teaching dance, rhythm, and songs at Red Hook for three years. Mr. Camara came from Guinea, a small part of West Africa, and speaks the language of Susu. The Camaras liked being with children and watching them do things they had taught them. The instruments they used were West African drums and sticks. They liked to watch the kids move, sing, play rhythms, and learn new words. We enjoyed watching this arts-in-education class.

Photographers: Olivia Ranieri

& Kelsey Ball

Rhythms to Delight

West African Dance

EASEL Page 2

Puppetry Comes Alive

By Kat Conklin & Jamie Peterson (Fifth Grade)

Tracy Leavitt is a fun person. She has been working with the arts-in-education program in Red Hook for about 15 or 16 years.

We asked Ms. Leavitt what she thought was unique about her residency. She said students see the whole process of puppet making, and they get to play and have fun.

Ms. Leavitt teaches students story structure, art skills, and how to work with one another. The materials used by the students in this unit are cardboard, tissue

paper, and glue.

According to Ms. Leavitt, the things that excite the kids the most are making puppets. They love the materials and they love using their imagination. Her favorite part of the project is “Tissue Paper Day.”

We got to see “Tissue Paper Day” when we visited Ms. Leavitt working with Mrs. Boyd’s kinder-garteners in March.

We decided to interview some of Mrs. Boyd’s students to see how they felt about the project. When we asked what they were thinking when they were making their puppets, many students said they thought about what colors their puppets should be.

Another question we asked was how Ms. Leavitt made the project special and exciting. One of the students said, “It was fun!” We could see that all the kinder-garteners were having fun and learning new art skills as they made their puppets.

Photographers:

Kat Conklin & Jaime Peterson

“Flival-Flavel”

good stories and a curtain for the puppet plays.

Most of Ms. Leavitt’s stories come from folktales she finds. She then takes a story and modifies it so the first graders can perform it.

“I can, in a short amount of time, study the structure of a story and then bring that story to life in a performance,” says Ms. Leavitt. “The program engages

By Nikki Swart (Fifth Grade)

In January, I interviewed teaching artist Ms. Tracy Leavitt who was working with Mrs. Dorrian’s first grade class. In her residency, Ms. Leavitt brings cardboard, glue, tissue paper, and “flival-flavel” (little odds and ends like ribbon, buttons and scraps of cloth found in corners) for students to use in puppet making. She also brings some

the students in literature.”

Ms. Leavitt loves seeing the students perform their plays, and says that not only do the kids love to perform, but they also love getting messy with glue!

Students enjoy working with Ms. Leavitt, and she enjoys work-ing with them. She also enjoys getting them interested in literature.

EASEL Page 3

Creative Career Puppets

By Gillian Berardi (Fifth Grade)

In April, Jason Allen and I went to Mr. Schubert’s classroom to watch his students put on puppet shows. Puppeteer Grian MacGregor helped students make puppets and taught them about parts of a stage. Each student in Mr. Schubert’s class made his or her own puppet with materials they had chosen. Materials used to create puppets were bottle caps, scraps of cloth, and bits and pieces of things that might have ended up in the trash. “The kids also used a lot of creativity,” said Ms. MacGregor.

With a partner each of the students put on a two-person play. Their puppets were dressed according to the career they had chosen for them. During the play partners asked questions about their jobs and costumes: How are you? What is that? Why are you wearing that? What is your job? How do you feel about your job?

What do you like about your job?

Ms. MacGregor was ready to help with a puppet of her own, if the kids didn’t know what to do or say. Some of the students were a little shy at first, but with some encouragement, they did speak up. “My favorite part,” says Grian MacGregor, “was to observe

and added more and more moves, it was easy to see how this dance could be enjoyable and exciting to perform.

The pair told the classes that it is not always about having a set routine of moves and strictly following them. Instead, it is more about the leader guiding his partner and her following along with the moves he is doing.

As part of the physical educa-tion program, the swing dance unit is a great way to show students different styles and ideas from other time periods and cultures, and how those dance moves from the past have influ-enced the styles of today.

By Emily Howard

(Twelfth Grade)

Nathan Bugh and Evita Arce returned to Red Hook High School this year to teach students even more about swing dancing. They taught some of the basic moves of the Lindy Hop, a dance based on the Charleston and named for Charles Lindbergh’s flight across the Atlantic in 1927. By the end of about a week and a half of instructions and demonstrations, the classes had obtained a pretty good grasp on what this style of dance entailed.

The first steps learned were the rock step and the triple step, the basis for any of the more compli-cated moves performed in this dance. As Mr. Bugh and Ms. Arce slowly built on the basic steps

Photographer: Emily Howard

Return of Swing Dancing

EASEL Page 4

the students building their puppets, watching them think, planning, and making choices.” It was obvious to us that all the second graders seemed to have fun making their puppets and working with Ms. MacGregor!

Photographer: Jason Allen

Q: What is the focus of your residency?

A: The focus is on health and discipline.

Q: What are the materials you use for this residency?

A: The materials used are music, martial arts, and coordination.

By Ethan Husted (Fifth Grade)

This year Brazilian dancer/musician Gustavo Caldas, a member of Vanaver Caravan, be-gan his first Mill Road Intermediate residency with the entire fifth

grade.

Q: How many years have you been a teaching artist at Mill Road?

A: Two weeks!

Q: What is unique about your arts-in-education program?

A: It’s unique because it’s a different art form.

Q: How does your residency excite the students?

A: It makes the art form easy to learn and be fun at the same time.

Q: What is your favorite part of this residency?

A: My favorite part is seeing all of us learning and having fun!

Photographer: Ethan Husted

By Ani Makebish (Fifth Grade)

Mirko Gabler has been a teaching artist at Mill Road School for ten years. I interviewed him in May when he was working with third graders. Mr. Gabler teaches his students how to look at nature, to not be afraid of draw-ing, and to believe they are artists. He uses crayons and pastels of many colors and shows his students tricks to drawing.

Mr. Gabler said he enjoys going outside to paint. It is his favorite place. He loves working with his students, and his students enjoy working with him. Mr. Gabler was very impressed with the third graders’ landscape drawings, and encouraged them to keep drawing, even after the arts-in-education project was over.

I interviewed Frita from Mrs. Longendyke’s third grade class, and asked her how she felt about

working with Mr. Gabler. She said she was very excited about landscape drawing at Olana because she liked learning new projects and drawing with pastels. Frita also said she liked all of Mr. Gabler’s help and suggestions when he taught her how to draw a good landscape.

Photographer: Ani Makebish

Young Artists at Olana

Brazilian Dancer Extraordinaire

EASEL Page 5

Red Hook Central School District 7401 South Broadway Red Hook, NY 12571

Bard College Arts in Education Coordinator

Ann Gabler

Assistant to the Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction

Marie Sturges

Senior Typist

Kay Gilbert

Arts-in-Education Staff Contributors:

Fifth Grade Teachers

Andrew Burkhardt Kristen Griffin Mary Hare Kelly Jones Patricia Levine Amy Perconti Janet Synan

Middle School Teachers Pam White

High School Teachers

Barbara Murray

Acknowledgements:

Empire State Partnerships

New York State Council of the Arts

Red Hook Central School District

Paul Finch, Superintendent of Schools

AIE Newsletter Editor:

Andrea Clark

Mill Road School

9 Mill Road

Red Hook, NY 12571

Phone: 845-758-2241, Ext. 2174

Email: aclark@rhcsd.org