Young Audiences of Western New York, Inc. (YA-WNY) partners with H.O.Brumsted Elementary School in Holland, NY to provide music, visual and literary arts residencies that tie into the Social Studies, English Language Arts, and Science curricula and New York State Standards. The emphasis is on student literacy and learning in and through the arts.

"Inspirational!" "Exhilarating!" "Imaginative!" "Inspiring! "Revealing!" "Heartwarming!" "Positive!"

"Student work was impressive. Sherry brought out the creativity in every single student. Their expressive language exceeded my expectations."
-----Comments from third grade teachers after their writing workshops with teaching artist Sherry Robbins

In this 4th year of implementation the entire school is being served by a variety of residencies, all with their main focus of improving student literacy.

"The students would come to art and tell me what they had done with Sherry with excitement and could not wait to see what we would be doing in art with each of the countries. Tie-in across curriculum was great! Kids waited with anticipation."-----Sue Mikula, H.O.Brumsted Elementary Art Specialist

Planning for 2009/2010 started at the end of the last school year. Very frank reflection meetings at the end of each residency determined the content and scope for the following year. Meetings were held for each, individual grade level. At the beginning of our reflection meetings, everyone took five minutes to write down some of his/her observations experienced during the residency. We then all shared our responses with each other, discussing our successes and whatever changes needed to be made. We also discussed assessment responses gathered from student surveys and teacher surveys at the end of the residency.

YA-WNY professional development will be held during one of the district wide staff development days. The workshop will be led by Young Audiences' master juggler and word extraordinaire, Nels Cremean. Nels will show participants how "play" can be a necessary component to problem solving and exemplified how humor can be an essential element to creating a successful workplace or classroom. Teachers will identify and reevaluate partnership goals while trying their hand at team improvisation, balancing acts and even juggling!

In mid October, the parents, students, and the entire school community came together to celebrate the school's Art-in-Education ESP partnership at a 1950's style Sock Hop/Spaghetti Dinner. Proceeds from the event will benefit their partnership with Young Audiences. Musicians John Lombardo and Joe Rozler performed classic oldies. Sarah Hooper, teaching period and contemporary dance steps, mixed things up with a little break dancing.

For the 2009/2010 school year, the following programs will be implemented:

Pre-K:

This year marked the first year that programming was added for Pre-K students.  Students worked with Strings N' Things, a musical duo made up of Tom Naples and Peggy Mileron. Young learners explored sound, vibration and rhythm by being introduced to new instruments including the guitar, banjo, autoharp and dulcimer.  Through movement and songs students strengthened their alphabet mastery, letter sounds, rhyming skills, sequencing, storytelling, and audiences skills in a fun and interactive way.

Kindergarten

This year, Kindergarten teachers want to integrate the arts into their Science curricula, with a main focus on nature, the environment and the seasons. YA-WNY teaching artist Jen Russo will visit the school in both the Fall and Spring to create nature-based mandalas that explore the changing colors and flora of the seasons. Mandalas are radial designs where the center is the most important element with related details orbiting around a visual nucleus. Students will work as teams to create group mandalas from natural objects they collect from their own backyard and on walks with their classroom teachers. In the second part of the residency, Jen will help students explore printmaking as students design their own leaf stamp use it to create a circular mandala print. Photos taken of the mandalas the students produced during these workshops will be used to create a notecard set that kindergarteners can share with their families.

Grade 1

Connecting with the ELA course of study on the theme of Memories and storytelling, YA-WNY teaching artist Gerald Mead will work with the first grade students to create collage covered memory boxes.  YA-WNY poet, Sherry Robbins, with the help of grade level teachers, will guide students in writing poetry reflecting on their memories.

Grade 2

Students in second grade will be learn about the Solar System and songwriting with YA-WNY teaching artist and songwriter Lisa Barrett. Tying together science, songwriting, and handbell ringing, Lisa will guide students through reading music and the technique involved with ringing handbells as an ensemble. Students will learn that sounds can be used to describe the different physical characteristics of the planets and will compose an original song about space. The residency will culminate in a final Sounds in Space! performance for the school community and parents.

Grade 3

Understanding different cultures will be the focus of workshops for the third grade students. YA-WNY poet/writer Sherry Robbins will guide students in writing poetry incorporating information acquired through the five senses and using metaphors. In planning, the classroom teachers and Sherry will select some of the countries the students will be studying in Social Studies this year to flavor their writings. YA-WNY teaching artist and visual artist Kyoko Roszmann will work with the Art Specialist in showing students how to make their own hand-made origami cards, each of which will contain one of their poems.

Grade 4

New York State History will come alive for the fourth grade students with YA-WNY teaching artist and poet/writer Sherry Robbins and their teachers as she implements writing workshops on the theme of the Erie Canal Era. Using a variety of prompts such as maps, vintage photographs and etchings, and historical artifacts, Sherry takes students back in time to gain a real, hands-on understanding of life on the canal while traveling across New York State. Students have the opportunity to express their ideas through writing stories and poems they share with their class. YA-WNY visual artist Colin Coots will work with the fourth graders in painting portraits of characters they have written about who lived during this time. The music specialist incorporates songs from the Canal era into her lessons, and Susie Rozler highlight the music with a performance.

Participating teachers, art, music, and library specialists, administrators, and parents from Holland have worked together with YA-WNY teaching artists and staff to develop a true partnership. Teachers and specialists meet with YA-WNY staff, teaching artists, and administrators to design and select lesson plans that best fit student curricular needs.
Community support in rural Holland, NY continues to be enthusiastic, with parents and community leaders working closely with H.O. Brumstedís teachers to help raise matching funds. Increasing community awareness of the Holland ESP continues to be on the planning agenda. YA-WNY, H.O. Brumsted Elementary School and the Holland School district have made a mutual commitment to create a nurturing environment that fosters discovery and creativity through the arts and enhances teaching and learning to meet and exceed State and District Learning Standards.

"We folded paper and it turned into something amazing! We made figures that related to the Erie Canal."
-----Hannah, Grade 4, on the Erie Canal Origami Mural Project

"The students found the performances and workshops interesting. This interest made it possible for the students to retain information, and ask more questions."

"The residency allowed a smooth transition into the topic of the Erie Canal in Social Studies."

"Students need all the practice we can give them to write creatively. This residency allowed students to take what they were learning in Social Studies, and apply it to writing."

-----Fourth grade teachers' comments on the residency's impact on their approach to the Social Studies and ELA curricula. All teachers responded that they would recommend this residency to other teachers.

Achievements:

Our city newspaper, The Buffalo News, selected the origami mural created by Holland Elementary fourth grade students, art specialist Sue Mikula, and YA-WNY teaching artist Kyoko Roszmann during our 2006/2007 residency to be the cover art for their Buffalo News Education Calendar 2007/2008. A brief article on our partnership also appeared in the calendar. This calendar is sent to over 15,000 educators and related people in the eight counties in Western New York.