Visit #5 and #6: It's Christmas Time!

Hello, everyone!

These past two weeks, I had a wonderful time visiting the kids! They have been learning all about Christmas in France and so when I came in last week, I taught them to sing Silent Night in French.  They memorized the words very quickly and were patient enough to sit still while I taught them all about dynamics! We learned all about how pairing certain words with dynamic stress can increase their meaning and how that can positively affect an audience. I brought my guitar and was able to accompany them while they sang, which was absolutely great!
This week, I came in and taught them another more traditional French Christmas song called Le Père Noël. It's all about how Santa is sick on the day before Christmas eve and needs to get better before he wakes up to deliver presents! There are percussion-style coughs, sneezes, and shushing sounds throughout the three verses of the music and so I taught the students about the effect non-musical sounds can have on a piece and on the audience that hears it. Since this song is generally only sung in France, I had some trouble finding a suitable accompaniment for it and so I took the melody line and made my own accompaniment for piano. I'll post the link to the music where you can see it and listen to the accompaniment if you would like! Another exciting thing we got to do this week is play on two full sets of xylophone hand bells! I borrowed these sets from the Brigham Young University Elementary Music Department and the class was able to learn about chords and how to play them! I split the class into two groups and each group was in charge of a chord. Luckily Le Père Noël only has two chords in the whole song so the class was able to accompany themselves, which they seemed to really enjoy. As a bonus, we were able to add this song to the annual Christmas Concert! I'm working on getting a video from it so I can post it on here for everyone to enjoy! Fingers crossed!

https://my.scorecloud.com/song/e6c823f0b4138b562f30ebc82bd36fee/Le-Pere-Noel-Est-Enhrume

This is the link to my accompaniment transcription!

This is a picture of one of the handbell sets that we had. I passed out only f,a,c,e, and g so that we had two chords.

Visit #4: All About Ogres!

Hello everyone!

We finished up our segment on area and perimeter and the next subject is literacy! Every week, the students read a new French story and this week the story is all about an Ogre! We really wanted to give the students a chance to expand their minds a little about ogres before they read the story. Since the children are learning a whole new language, it's best for them if they understand the concept of an English word before they have to learn it in French. This means that we needed an activity that was all about ogres so the students could become more familiar with them! Needless to say, this was a very exciting week, but it was also kind of difficult to find an aspect of the arts that was based on ogres. I couldn't find a song about ogres that was short enough for them to learn in one session, and so I spent some time making one up for them! They seemed to really have a ton of fun with it, and I was so glad to see they were excited about what they were learning. For the musical aspect of it, I taught the students how to use actions with a song to make it more interesting for an audience. They REALLY got into it and I got a ton of students wanting to stand up with me in front of the class and show everyone the actions they had come up with to dramatize the song. Here's a short video that I think you're really going to enjoy of the class practicing the song!

Visit #2 and #3: Perimeter and Area

Hello everyone!
        I went for my second visit on Friday and it was so much fun! The students at Edgemont have been learning all about perimeter this week and will be learning all about area next week! That means that we needed to come up with a way to teach these two subjects while integrating the arts! Luckily, this isn't hard at all because perimeter and area naturally lend themselves to drawings. In math, we usually are given boring shapes like squares and rectangles to find the area and perimeter of, but you can really use any shape you want! We decided to use art to spice this process up and so when I first got to class, we gave all the children graph paper and let them draw their favorite animal on it. By using graph paper, the children can easily find both the perimeter and the area of their drawings! We didn't have enough time to finish this step, but all the children were able to finish up their artwork and it is ready for next week! Here are some pictures of just a few of the awesome animals that the students came up with. I couldn't believe some of the ingenuity that we saw!

   Once everyone had finished their drawing, I got my ukulele out and we learned a short song about area and perimeter to help them remember the rules for each. When we finished, all the children left, but I could hear them singing it in the halls and it made me really excited because I knew if it got stuck in their heads, they would never forget area and perimeter again!

(Visit #3)

      So I just finished by third visit, and it went great! All the students were able to find the area and the perimeter of their animals! We got out a page projector and the students were all very excited to share their drawings with the entire class. My only regret is that we couldn't show everyone's drawings at once! We finished learning the song and they have now learned it in both English and French! They are such impressive students, I really can't believe it! 

-Kyra

Visit #1: Observation

Hello! It's Kyra again, and I've just finished my first visit to Edgemont Elementary School! Since I wanted to get a hang of the classroom first, I just observed this time, but I had so much fun! I just happened to make it on Halloween of all days, and so it was quite an experience! When I got there, the children were all lined up in a costume parade around the school. I even saw one student dressed up as a flamingo trainer! After that, we all came back to the classroom and I got to meet all the students I will be working with. I just love how eager to learn they all are! My favorite part of the day, however, was story time! Mrs. Budge told the children a Halloween story in French! Although I didn't understand all of it, I knew enough to be very entertained. I was lucky enough to snap a short video of the talented Daphne Budge and her great story telling skills!

Now that I have an idea of what the classroom is all about, I'm full of great ideas for next week! I can't wait to get started and I'm very excited to be working with such a wonderful group of students! 

-Kyra

Meeting For The First Time

Hello everyone! Kyra here! So I probably should have posted about this quite some time ago, but I'm just getting around to it now. Better late than never, right? So two weeks ago, I got the pleasure of meeting both Daphne Budge, and Brittany May. As you know, Daphne's class is the one I will be making visits to and so we will be collaborating on our lesson plans. Brittany is my faculty mentor, and she has graciously made herself available to answer any of my questions and help brainstorm for possible lesson plans. Together, we basically make up the dream team!

       Here we are! We make up a good-looking trio, right?

I was so excited to meet both of them, and let me tell you, they both exceeded my expectations! They were both so kind, as well as professional and imaginative. I am so lucky to be working with them this year. During our meeting I found out one very important fact that I was not aware of before. The class I'm going to be visiting is a French immersion class! What does that mean, do you ask? Basically, it means that no English is spoken in the classroom. Ever. Now I don't speak French, so you can imagine that this was a surprise, but the wonderful thing about music is that it is spoken in every language. French, German, Latin, English, they all speak the same musical language and so I know that I am going to be just fine! I should be going out for my first visit in the next week or so, so stay tuned for that!


Thanks for reading!

-Kyra

About Me, About the Arts Bridge, About Beginnings

Hello!

 I'm Kyra and I'm very excited to be starting my experience with the Arts Bridge here at Brigham Young University! Here are a few important things about me: I am currently working towards my degree in vocal studies at Brigham Young University, I am married to the most wonderful man I have ever met, and I am originally from Colorado. I absolutely love music and art, as well as the occasional dance in the rain. I feel very passionately about both the consumption and the creation of delicious food, and I believe in the virtue of teaching and the impact that teachers have in the lives of their students. Last, but certainly not least, I believe in a God who knows us and loves us.

Now the most important topic: the Arts Bridge Program! The Arts Bridge here at Brigham Young University was created to bring more music, dance, and art into schools ranging from Kindergarten to 6th grade. Most children this age are not being given opportunities in school to explore the arts like they should be, and that's what we are here to change. Each Art Scholar like myself will be working with a teacher from the area to integrate the arts into the regular school curriculum. Together, we can immerse children in the arts and get their creative side working right along with their academic side. Throughout the coming semester, I will be working in Provo with Daphne Budge and her 3rd grade class. Even though I haven't met any of them yet, I have a great feeling about our experience together and I think it's going to be an incredible semester for all of us.

I hope you'll join Daphne and I this year by reading this blog as our story unfolds!

Always,

-Kyra