The Phonics Program: Alphabet Awareness

This innovative program, created by Jerry Raven, Cindy Hanna and Marna Burstein, uses multiple stimuli to teach phonics to pre-Kindergarten through first grade students. Using songs, dances, signing and visual arts, each consonant or vowel is attached to a variety of activities which establish and reinforce the connection of the letter to its corresponding sounds. By acknowledging that all students do not learn in the same way, or at the same rate, The Phonics Program addresses the needs of those students who struggle with the traditional approach to reading.
A musician and dancer work with a small group of students from each class or an entire class, teaching four or five songs and dances relating to the letters of the alphabet at each session. The songs are reinforced by the classroom teacher who leads the entire class in the corresponding visual art activity described in the accompanying Curriculum Book. Students listen to the accompanying CD and sing along while working on the art project. The Residency culminates in a celebratory performance by all participating students.

Grades: Pre K-1
Artists: Jerry Raven, Kip Ralabate
Fee: $4,250 - Full Residency
Call office for more details
Limit: 100 students (four classes)

Dave Ruch

Local/Regional History Comes Alive! Residency

Design your own program with Dave to explore your area’s rich history through local stories and songs, songwriting projects and more. Armed with a slew of intriguing musical instruments (guitar, jaw harp, banjo, mandolin, dulcimer &/or washtub bass), a carefully researched store of songs from your region, and a zest for exploring local history through music, there’s no telling what your students will discover about their history....and themselves!

American History Comes Alive! Residency

Programs similar to the above Local/Regional History Comes Alive! Residency can be centered around any number of other historical topics including (but not limited to) New York State History & Stories, Native Americans, Regions of America, Colonial America, Revolutionary War, Civil War, Underground Railroad, Pioneers, Westward Expansion, Gold Rush, Occupations, Waterways, Immigration, World Communities, New York State History, etc.
School visits varying in duration from one day to two weeks or more link Social Studies curriculum topics with interactive songs, research and songwriting projects.

Grades: K-8
Fee: Call office for details

More programs by this artist: Music & Family & Community

Jen Russo

A Visual & Physical Experience of Yoga

Experienced art educator and yoga teacher Jen Russo will lead students through a fun & physical process that will culminate with a painting.  Through learning about the ancient lifestyle and art about Yoga, students will increase body awareness, knowledge of personal space and boundaries, increase strength and flexibility, fluidity in movement and a sense of grounded-ness, as well as breathing exercises which can calm and center.  Throughout this residency, students will understand the proportions of the human body so that they may draw themselves in the yoga position they like the most.  Colors, textures, lines, words and/or symbols can be added in and around the figure, which will describe the student’s whole self within this pose.  Contemporary as well as historical art related to yoga will be viewed and discussed as the students create their own work of art reflecting their experience. Takes at least six workshops to complete.

Grades: 7-12, as well as special needs students of the same grade level.
Fee: Call office for details
Limit: 25

Patterns and Repetition in Printmaking

In this residency, students will learn how one simple line can be turned into an interesting pattern which can then be printed over and over again in different directions resulting in a large colorful, multi-directional and layered image.  Students will have the opportunity to collage all of their prints, linking lines and making more complex patterns that originated from just from one line!  Takes at least six workshops to complete

Grades: K-4, as well as special needs students of the same grade level.
Fee: Call office for details
Limit: 25

Reynold Scott

Hands On Jazz

Woodwinds, brass, piano, guitar, drums and voice are used to teach elements of jazz and collaborative musicianship.  This program is ideal for groups interested in improvisation and composing.  Multiple workshop sessions may culminate with a concert composed of selected students and the jazz group.  These workshops are designed to meet the students’ needs.  Call the office for details.

Grades: 1-12
Fee: Call office for details
Limit: 30 students per workshop

A Whole Note Band

Multi-talented jazz musician Reynold Scott will bring his orchestra of instruments including trumpets, tubas and more to teach the students to play basic notes and perform a piece together.

Grades: K-5
Fee: Call office for details
Limit: 30 students per workshop

More programs by this artist: Music & Family & Community

Jeanne Vuich

Theaterworks Residency

This multi-session residency will result in the creation of an original play which will be performed at the last session.  Participants will create several original stories together and choose the one most suitable for dramatizing. Participants will develop this story into a play through the use of improvisation.  Students learn theater terms, develop acting skills and work as an ensemble respecting each other’s ideas.  The play will be curriculum related and involve teacher input.

Grades: K-12

Understanding History Through Creative Dramatics

This residency will delight and educate students while enabling them to gain a deeper understanding of the historical period that they are studying. The first session will be spent playing theater games and learning the basics of improvisation. In the second session, participants will use improvisation to explore the struggles and dilemmas of the people who lived during the time period being studied. Workshops are developed with the teacher’s input at a separate meeting to define curriculum goals, assessment and evaluation strategies. This residency can be extended to include student performances.

Grades: 3-12
Fee: Call office for details
Limit: 20 students per workshop

More programs by this artist: Theater & Dance

Celia White

Taking Note: A Journal Writing Residency

“An inner life, cultivated, nourished, is a well of strength,the inner structure we need to resist outer catastrophes and errors and injustices.” –Anais Nin

Every area of life benefits when time is taken to reflect and listen to one’s inner voice. Poet and fiction writer Celia White has kept a daily journal for over 25 years. In this workshop, participants are invited to begin or deepen their experience of journal writing.  Uses of a journal as keepsake book, memoir, problem-solving tool, safe space, and starting-place for creative writing will be discussed. Writing will be combined with the visual arts.

I Was There! : Creative Writing Entwined with the Social Studies Curriculum

Using photos, pictures, object and maps as springboards for the imagination, Celia White engages students in creative writing which deepens their experience of historical events and eras in the NYS Social Studies Curriculum. Celia White is eager to collaborate with teachers to develop residencies that meet their curricular goals. Writing workshops might be integrated with topics such as World Explorers, Native Peoples, Colonial Life, the Underground Railroad, The Great Depression, World Wars, or others of the teacher’s definition.  Residencies can be of any length and will be shaped to meet NYS Learning Standards in the chosen curricular areas. Preplanning sessions are required.

Grades: K-12
Fee: Call office for details
Limit: 30 students per workshop

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