I'm Staying Home from School Today

I'm one of those lucky ones--I have a job I love! Even so, there are some days when I'd rather snuggle up with a great book, paint, design or just play. In honor of my students (and maybe you too) who may feel the same way, I include this video--my first venture into techno art, a claymation piece I did last summer at Arts Express.

Music in the Classroom

Music is everywhere in my classroom. This video clip shows children using music to help learn math, improve their voices and share the enjoyment of movement and musical games. The video ends with our class opera which was done last year in conjunction with BYU Arts Partnership and the Side-by-Side program.

Chinese Arts

Today in class we made Chinese Carp Kites. They're so colorful and bright. The kids loved flying them at recess where we found a few places snow-free to run and twirl. We also made Chinese dragon puppets and the red paper lanterns hanging from our ceiling.

The highlight of the day was our interpretation of Tikki Tikki Tembo. We practiced saying that name, Tikki tikki tembo no sa rembo chari bari ruchi pip peri pembo over and over again until we could all join in every time it occured in the book. We had a slide whistle to sound every time the book mentioned "fell into the well" and seed pod shakers to sound whenever the boys played by the well. There were also maracas to shake at various times and a wooden ball-o-phone that students played every time one of the brothers ran to the old man who had (by the way) a very grouchy sounding rachet to call attention to his parts. The children wanted to do this over and over again.