Martha Graham

ArtsEdge has a wonderful site dedicated to renown dancer Martha Graham. Martha is known as the master of modern dance. A Dancer's Journal has many stories, videos and information about groundbreaking works that Ms. Graham choreographed. For more information, visit Graham's American Masters page.

Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas was born on July 19, 1834. Degas was an Impressionist artist but is probably best known for his paintings of dancers.



Two Dancers on a Bench by Edgar Degas

Discussion about the piece:
What are the girls wearing?
What do you think each girl is thinking?
What are they doing? Where are they?


After discussing the piece, create a story about the girls in the painting. You may even want to act out a scene from the story. Be creative!

Vacation!

I will be on summer "vacation" until July 12th. During my vacation, I will work at two band camps and do a little traveling. See you in July!

The Spider Weaver Activity

The Spider Weaver is a popular folktale from Japan. While looking at weaving projects I found a fun tissue weaving activity from Laura Ginga.

For the activity, you will need one 8" x 18" piece of card stock, five pipe cleaners, stapler and staples, tape, glue, tissue paper strips, construction paper, crayon/markers.

Rhyming Fun

Children who rhyme have an easier time recognizing word families when reading. Playing rhyming games can be fun and educational. This game can be played anywhere (car, store, etc). Younger children may make up imaginary words and that is fine!

To play, simply ask the child to repeat the word you say and then say as many rhyming as they can. Here are some words to get the game started: cat, fan, bed, lake, rug, hot, frog, and car.

Warm Colors

Summer is just around the corner and it is a great time to think about warm colors! What things in our everyday lives remind you of warm colors. For example, fire trucks, the sun, oranges, lemons, stop signs, fall leaves, and sunsets have warm colors.

An example of warm colors is Vincent Van Gogh's Sunflowers (1888).

Using whatever mediums you have on hand (construction paper, cloth, crayons, paints, clay, pencils, etc), create a piece (sculpture or drawing) using warm colors.

SFS Kids Website

Have you visited the San Fransisco Symphony Kids site yet? It is musical fun for kids and adults alike! My personal favorite is the Composerizer where budding composers can create different compositions by simply arranging seven measures of music. The Composerizer also allows the composer to hear the creation.