Creative Arts Camp for week one was definately a good time and my teaching partner was great thinking on her feet as we revamped our lessons, ideas and daily structure at the close of each day to accomodate the abilities and desires of our participants. At the end of the week I can confidently say I made 16 great new friends: Pauline, Megan, Angie, Addison, Jessa, Jenna, Mary, Alajondra, Emilee, Owen, Oscar, Devarshi, Hannah (teen helper) and Ms. Brenda.
After introducing some basic movement concepts the first day, the next day I brought in banners and billow cloths and we did some praise dance. The kids broke up into groups and presented moves to represent Joy/Power, War/Peace, Glory, Death/Rejoice. It was very sweet and I was honored that they took it seriously and with reverence. I polled the group the day before and they all had church associations except for one of the boys but he went with it.
A couple of the days we took a trip to the park which was only a few blocks away, one day we did soap carvings, another leaf & tree rubbings.
The last day I brought in a bunch of native instruments my mother collected throughout her travels and we had fun making up rhythms and playing along with a drum CD from a group in Nova Scotia. We also took our lunches down to the park and ate picnic style.
A couple of the days we took a trip to the park which was only a few blocks away, one day we did soap carvings, another leaf & tree rubbings.
The second day for drama they worked on creating their own skits based on a folktale and it had to teach a lesson or present a problem and then a solution. The beginning of the third day we worked on masse to create masks for the skits.
We also took a trip across the street to the School of Rock on the third day and they split into two bands and learned how to play 'Wild Thing' by the Troggs. Good times!
For the conclusion of day three all the groups presented their scripts to each other, for my afternoon time with them we created props, sets, and blocked out the scenes. We had some very different stories one was 'The Tortoise and the Dog' (no pix), 'The Death of Jonie' (an annoying octopus gets thrown in a volcano), 'Get Along' (boys group), and 'The Three Pickles and the Big Bad Squirrel' (an adaptation of The Three Billy Goats Gruff).
The last day I brought in a bunch of native instruments my mother collected throughout her travels and we had fun making up rhythms and playing along with a drum CD from a group in Nova Scotia. We also took our lunches down to the park and ate picnic style.
Our final activity was making God's Eyes which was a huge hit, many of them made several 'eyes'. They'd get done then run out to the side yard of the art center to find a couple more sticks then jump back in and get to work. At the end of each day we brought the two groups together for a time of reflection. Ms Brenda introduced me to a technique called 'Rose and Thorn' the rose being the best part of the day the thorn being the thing they liked the least which helped us gauge how to proceed the next day. I'm happy to say as the days went on the majority of campers had 'no thorns' to report. Woot! Good time....exhausting schedule being completely in charge from 9a-5p with no breaks but great to have something new to put my mind and energy into. Next week I'll do it again with a fresh group of campers and a different teaching partner....stay tuned! 
No comments:
Post a Comment