Mural

Here is our mural made from bottle caps hanging in the PACS hallway

The Big Freeze!

Look at our Big Freeze project!

Check out our music video!

Catching Up

Sorry about the posting paucity. We will be back on a weekly schedule now that spring break is over. Here are some photos from the last couple weeks:








A game we play where the kids pretend to be pieces of popcorn and act with popcorn personalities during the popping process:















Yoga moves from our walking game:














Kids near cameras:

Dance!

Here is the dance rehearsal!

Week 6

We continued working on aspects of the music video this week.

On Tuesday we used meditation and journal time to generate lyrics for the music video and many students shared their results with the group. We ended the class with an impromptu beat-boxing session, an activity some students had much experience in, and others little. However, nearly everyone participated by the end and we are likely to record something similar to use in the video.

On Thursday we again journaled about lyrics. Then Kara recorded some Stomp sounds with individual students while the rest of the group worked on our background mural that we plan to use as part of the backdrop for our music video shoot.

We also discussed bringing in some ASU dance students to help us choreograph sustainability themed dance for the video. The kids seemed excited and I have been assured by Elizabeth Johnson, a visiting dance instructor, that we will be able to collaborate. Hopefully we can post some pics of the dance as the choreography progresses.

That's it for this week, thanks for checking in!

5

We focused more on the music video this week.  Continuing with improv to get their creative minds flowing, they are working on a backdrop we will use for the video.  The prompt is "What are you feeling?"  There was more talk this week on sustainability and what it is.  Thursday, we created plays with lines, music, and props on the subject of sustainability and presented them in groups.  Above are pictures from the plays the students wrote and performed!!

The students creating their own rhythm in STOMP

Week 4!

This week we started on STOMP!  The students got into 4 groups and each had a 4/4 rhythm.  One at a time, the group clapped their rhythms.  Then, they got instruments of things that would be found around their house.  One groups had newspapers, one tupperware, one pots and lids, and one trash cans and pans.  They then did their rhythms with these instruments and created a very cool sounding rhythm song.  They learned all about the off-Broadway rhythm troupe "STOMP" and heard some of their music, as well.

Thursday, we continued with STOMP and did a recording.  John and I are going to stream the recording together with the bass line compositions that they did last week to create a piece of music that is all their own!  Later, we're going to add lyrics and shoot a music video!  The kids are so excited!!!

3

Apologies for the delay this week!  Week 3!

In week 3 we did a project called "Self-portrait."  We did a journal about the things they like most about themselves first.  The students then took a piece of typing paper and lined it with a page from the newspaper.  Then, we have several magazines where they found pictures and words to describe themselves and made a collage of a self-portrait.  The projects are posted in the artspace room at PACS, and I posted a few at the top

Also, we talked more about rhythm in music and learned some basic rhythm reading skills.  To display this, we downloaded a program on the classroom computers called "Finale" and had the students write a composition with their note naming skills. 

Walking Game

The kids playing the "walking game"... pretending to be John and myself.

Last week we asked the students to write letters to themselves and planted them in the ground as a time capsule. We also began to teach basic music theory.

Week 1!

Hello Phoenix Advantage!  John and I are thrilled that you are allowing us to be a part of your school and have an impact on your students (and children!) for the next 29 weeks!  They are quite amazing - we are learning for them each day we get the pleasure of getting to know them.  I thought you might like to know a bit of what we've done our first week.  It was certainly a week to try to get to know one another; to create a safe and creative space.

On Tuesday, the students entered the classroom into an "adventure."  They came in through a tunnel, drew a mural together, and felt the texture of the chairs as they slid across them.  Then, they each grabbed an item off a table and took on characteristics of item (some of them picked up a pencil and pretended to write on the floor, some of them picked up a feather boa and started dancing around, etc).  We played some games, did some educational kinesiology activities to get their brains working (we call it brain gym), and decorated journals that we will be using all semester.  Thursday, we started off with some brain gym and then looked at a poem by Nikki Giovanni entitled The Drum.

The Drum:

Daddy says the world is a drum

Tight and hard

And I told him

I'm going to beat out my own rhythm

We talked about the important words in the poem, circled them, decided what the poem meant, etc.  Then, the students got into groups and did a vocal word association, replacing a sound for each important word that was circled.  After that, they made a motion for each important word without using any sound whatsoever.  The students liked it, and seemed to stay on task rather well.  We played a beginning theatre improvisation game and worked on their journals after that.  These students are so excited!!!  We cannot wait to see how far we can stretch them!  We are looking forward to an amazing semester!  Thank you for letting us teach them!

Kara and John