Casey Arts

Make and Take Night

2010-09-19T21:45:00.003-05:00

Above is Sierra's creation from Make and Take Night. The theme was abstract & verbs. Mrs. G talked about Picasso's work and how her class incorporated using verbs with abstract art.

Sierra's verbs are: jumping, watching, and crossing.

The lifeguard is watching the purple dolphin jumping
in the water. The red bridge is for the people crossing the island.

Summer Garden Gathering : 7

2009-07-22T10:02:00.003-05:00

purple corn tassels-- the corn is so high!

The pumpkin seed that we planted with Mrs. Morgan is up and growing!

one of the growing squash plants that we planted from seed and transplanted

harvesting some ripe tomatoes

slide-show with descriptions:

Memphis Gardens

2009-07-13T11:08:00.002-05:00

Yes, that chair and sofa are covered in moss!

flower "beds"!

a sunflower at The Dixon's cutting garden

On a recent trip to Memphis, Tennessee, I visited the Memphis Botanic Garden and The Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Both were fabulous places with wonderful plants (even if I was dripping with sweat after walking around them)!

The Memphis Botanic Garden is building a children's garden called "My Big Backyard." There is a PDF map of the plans here and information about the grand opening of the garden on August 1st, 2009, here. It promises to be whimsical and inspire new ways of interacting with plants! My photos from the MBG are in the slide show below.

I was not able to tour all of The Dixon gardens because I took so much time looking at the wonderful civil war exhibit inside the galleries. What I saw, however, was beautiful. Visitors are admitted to the galleries and gardens for free on Saturdays from 10 am to noon. Here are the photos I took there.

Have you visited a garden recently?

Summer Garden Gathering : 6

2009-07-09T08:00:00.005-05:00

The Casey gardeners took a field trip to Fresh Way Produce at 6900 Old Canton Road in Ridgeland, Mississippi, on July 8, 2009. The Cockrell family owns and operates this market and has been in the produce business for over 40 years.

You can take a "virtual field trip" by viewing the photos from the market and reading their descriptions. If you click on the link, it will take you to a slide show on Flickr. By clicking anywhere on the photo, a description window will open. Let me know if you have trouble with this!

Everyone left the market with a new appreciation for the hard work of farmers, running a business, and yummy, fresh produce to eat! We learned about a Mississippi invention, local produce, and a teacher who now makes pickles for the market!

Below is the slide show of the field trip, but you can't see the photo descriptions unless you go directly to the Flickr set in the "virtual field trip" link above.

Summer Garden Gathering : 5

2009-07-01T14:49:00.007-05:00

Our first tomato was ripe enough to harvest! This was a tomato plant that came up on its own from seeds left in the bed last year.

The milkweed pots were still bursting. The feathery seeds looked like white fire flames. The sweet potato vine is thriving in its home underneath the shade. I love the contrast of the bright green leaves with the dark green of the grass.

The dried beans that we planted last Wednesday were coming up in the small pots and in the bed with the corn! You can see the seeds hanging onto the sprout and the roots reaching out of the bottom of the pot. The zinnia seeds and lettuce leaf basil that we planted in small pots last week had also sprouted. The pumpkin seed still showed no signs of germination.

The purple flower belongs to the same beans that we planted and had sprouted above. Who could have imagined such beauty from a bean flower? I picked some flowers for a small arrangement in a plastic cup left over from germinating the squash seeds. The lettuce was withstanding the lack of rain, and a new tomato plant was blooming and bearing fruit.

There were so many things to see on July 1st including corn that continued to grow, a red pepper, a tiny spider and its web on the dill plant, and three more squash plants that a mystery person or persons planted since last week! Two families enjoyed watering and noticing all of the changes in the garden. Plus, we looked forward to eating a tomato and some beans fresh from the Casey garden with our suppers! See you next week.

The slide-show from today. . .

Summer Garden Gathering : 4

2009-06-25T07:14:00.004-05:00

The milkweed plants are fascinating. They developed seed pods that have been covered in little yellow bugs for weeks (yellow from the pollen?. . . aphids?). Yesterday, the first "new" thing I noticed about the garden was that the pods have started opening to reveal their feathery seeds. These feathers will work with the wind as transportation to carry the seeds to new places. Here is some information about milkweed seed propagation.

Mrs. Morgan brought some books and ideas to share with us. One of her favorite artists is Claude Monet who liked to paint gardens. You can learn more about him here. She also brought a calendar and showed us how she plans to record small amounts of information about the garden directly on her calendar in the squares for each day of the month. This is a good strategy to encourage observation and writing for people who may be intimidated or not have the time for writing longer journal-type entries, but it will also help us to remember important things we noticed about the garden's development. I could imagine that her calendar entry for yesterday might read, "we planted bean seeds that we harvested from a dried bean pod around our growing corn."

The photo above shows the color changes of these foot-long beans as they dry. The bean pod at the left was too dried up to eat, so we took the beans out to dry them. At first, they are light pink, but as they dry, they gradually turn to a deep purple-red to black. In this intense heat, we had beans drying at various stages. The black beans on the right are the are the beans we planted around our corn.

We watered, harvested cabbage and beans, pruned the basil and coleus, fed the turtles our discarded cabbage leaves and bean pods (which they began eating almost immediately), shared some books, marveled at the milkweed and corn growth, wished for the tomatoes to turn red, planted a squash seedling and watermelon plant started from seed, and planted some zinnia seeds, a pumpkin seed, and some lettuce-leaf basil in pots. We also planted some beans that were not dry and some dry beans to experiment and see if both will germinate or not. We predict that the dry beans will germinate but the wet ones will not.

Below is a slide show of my photos from the morning. We were a small crowd with only Mrs. Morgan, my son, and myself at first. Another family joined us later in the morning. Some of us started work at 8:30 am, and we didn't leave until 10:30 am! Working in the morning was definitely the way to go. In this heat wave, we could not have worked for nearly as long at noon.

Watering

2009-06-17T13:18:00.001-05:00

We stopped by the garden to water and check on things. The garden group met this morning for the Tougaloo field trip, but my family was not able to go. Wow! We have corn that is 3 feet high, tomatoes growing plump, and beautiful containers. Some of the beds are a little too dry, and we have lost some plants and may be about to lose a few more to this heat wave. All but one of the sunflower seedlings dried up. The curry plant dried up a few weeks ago.

The beans, however, are doing great! We picked a large bunch and divided them between Mrs. Coleman and Mrs. Bennett. They will have a delicious addition to their supper tonight. Mrs. Coleman plans to saute hers.

Saturated Growing and Cooking

2009-06-13T11:11:00.003-05:00

Swiss Chard and green cabbage mix from the Casey Garden-- stir fried in some vegetable oil and soy sauce. Yum!

String beans "hanging out" at the Casey Garden

Started in the classroom during May, my daughter's Lima bean plant is starting to bear some fruit from the flower.

String beans picked, prepared, and waiting to be cooked by my daughter. They were delicious. She boiled them in some salted water, plunged them into ice water, and served them with our summer supper. I loved them! Best of all, because she grew them and cooked them, she tried them!

I saturated the photos above to match how much fun we are having with the garden! It is so rewarding to grow something, care for it, harvest it, and create something delicious (and healthy) for the table. Inspired by the Casey Garden, we have planted several vegetables in our yard: okra, zucchini squash, yellow squash, several tomato varieties, green peppers, Japanese eggplant, and watermelons. We've also added to our herb garden and have started some sunflower plants from seed for the birds. We are having the best time watching everything grow and differentiate. Even if our plants don't produce much (because our planting times may have been off), we are learning through the process.

Summer Garden Gathering :: 2

2009-06-11T06:35:00.004-05:00

At this week's summer garden gathering, we watered the dry soil and drying plants, harvested a few beans, read several books about the seed to plant process, shared some freshly picked local blueberries, and made our own garden observation journals from recycled materials. If you missed making the journals, there are many online resources to help you make one of your own.

www.makingbooks.com has several different journal types that could be used for a garden observation journal. We made a modified Stick and Elastic Book recycling a cereal box for the cover and using a magnolia twig for the stick.

You could also use the instructions on the www.kidsgardening.com website her e. This journal is slightly more involved to make, but the helping hands of a parent could make it possible. If you make a journal on your own at home, please bring it to the garden to show the rest of us and to use for your observations!

The books we read and perused were from the Jackson-Hinds Library System. We checked these out from the Willie Morris Branch from the 580's of the children's section. The children at our gathering would have read every book if we had let them! They were so interested in the illustrations and photographs and hungry to learn more about plants. The last book we read was about hungry plants or carnivorous plants. Everyone was fascinated and learned something new. If you have gardening books at home or visit a public library to check some out, bring them to share with our gardening group!

Lastly, here are some ideas for how to use your hand-made field journal:

Choose a plant and observe it every day or once a week for a period of time. Really look at it closely. Measure it and record its growth. Sketch it. Photograph it. Ask questions about it.
Write poetry about a plant, gardening, or eating something from the garden.
Write a short story about a gardening experience.
Make plans for what you might want to plant next in your garden.
Collect photos of plants from seed catalogs, newspapers, or magazines.
Record things you learn about plants from gardening books checked out of the library. A librarian can help you find fiction and nonfiction books about plants or gardening.
Include a recipe you used to prepare something harvested from the garden.
Write from a specific perspective (other than your own), such as that of worm tunneling under their green oasis.
Find a spot outside and sit quietly for 5 minutes. Use your senses to absorb the scene and then record observations, ideas, and feelings. What do you hear, see, smell, taste, feel?
Doodle, draw, paint, collage, reflect. . .
What ideas do you have?

You can bring your field journal to the garden each week to share with the group and to continue your observations about the progress of the garden. If you keep your field journal all summer, you will have something to share with your new classmates and your new teacher when you start school in August! You can also share it at our Summer's Celebration on August 5th, 2009!

It is not too late to join the work and fun of the Casey Garden! If you are interested, post a comment below. Everyone is welcome. Coming next Wednesday: a field trip to the Tougaloo Sustainable Community Garden!

Summer Garden Kick-Off

2009-06-06T07:15:00.005-05:00

On Friday, June 5, 2009, parents, students, teachers, and friends of Casey Elementary met for a summer orientation and preview of summer gardening events. In the photo above, Melanie Allen prepared tomatoes from the farmer's market with basil from our garden! Serenity Luckett (above right), gave a history of the garden project and introduced future summer activities. Since Casey is a creative arts school, we especially hope to encourage students and families to create art inspired by the garden. Gardening + Art = gARTening!

Andy Williamson (camera-man in bottom left corner), from Mississippi Public Broadcasting's Mississippi Roads, is following the Casey Garden throughout the summer to produce a show about gardening in schools. He hopes that his piece will inspire other schools to catch the gardening bug. Mr. Williamson also filmed footage at garden activities during the Casey Family Arts Festival and when students harvested lettuce and spinach for a teacher appreciation salad during the last week of school.

During the orientation, Mrs. Allen helped the children label all plants, harvest vegetables that were ready, and plant new plants. We harvested onions, cabbages, Swiss chard, and pole beans that everyone could take home for cooking and eating. We also fed the Casey turtles some of the cabbage! We planted eggplant, watermelon, sunflowers, and cucumber plants.

As a final activity, Julie Owen helped students to plant their own pots with zinnia seeds and their own peat pellets with a squash seed for germinating at home. We encouraged all participants to monitor the progress of their seeds and sprouts with measurement and careful observation. Some of the squash seedlings may be transplanted to the Casey Garden in empty portions of the beds.

Students gathered outside of the "turtle courtyard" to watch the turtles munch away on cabbage leaves placed out for them only minutes before.

The next garden meeting is Wednesday, June 10, 2009, at noon. Please bring a picnic lunch and plenty of water to drink! We will be indoors for part of the meeting to make our own garden observation journals out of recycled materials. Please bring any empty cereal boxes you may have, magazines or newspaper photos of gardens, seed catalogs, or drawings that can be cut and pasted to decorate our covers.

If you are interested in participating in the Casey Garden, please post a comment below. We need families to take turns watering the garden each week. A tentative schedule for summer garden activities is listed below, but please be aware that events/dates may change as the summer progresses.

June 5: Orientation, planting of seeds in individual pots as well as garden boxes,

June 10: Regular picnic, make observation journals from recycled materials, art introduction

June 17: Picnic and trip to Tougaloo garden

June 24: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity

July 1: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity

July 8: Meet at Farmer's Market in Jackson, take tour of market and talk to farmers, each child buy one item, meet back at Casey for picnic and discussion about farmer's market

July 15: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity

July 22: Tour Mynelle Gardens and learn about flowers there

July 29: Regular picnic day with book reading or garden activity

August 5: Garden celebration with slide show and art presentations by kids. Teachers report August 6.

Also, check out this wonderful website full of resources and information about gardening with kids.

http://www.kidsgardening.com/

If you were at the garden on Friday, we would love to hear what you or your children thought about the day's activities. Please comment below!

JumpstART at The Mississippi Arts Center

2009-05-10T07:06:00.005-05:00

Barr Elementary worked with the Mississippi Museum of Art on these collages from recycled materials depicting places in our community for their JumpstART project. JumpstART, a program of the Ask for More Arts Initiative is comprised of 21 JPS elementary schools. Parents for Public Schools- Greater Jackson is the convening partner of the Initiative.

Clausell Elementary created Chinese puppets using recycled milk gallons, brads, and coat hangers. When students from Casey saw these, they wanted to take them down from the wall, give them life, and improvise their own puppet show!

Third grade students from Casey's after-school ballet program with Ballet Mississippi toured the JumpstART exhibit after rehearsal for their upcoming recital at Thalia Mara Hall on Tuesday, May 12, at 6:00 pm. Here, they show off their ballet expertise in front of the art they created in partnership with artists George Miles and Shambé Jones.

This Casey student's writing includes hopes for her own future as well as Jackson's future:

I want to be an architect when I grow up so I can help people rebuild and redesign old buildings. It would help Jackson because Jackson has a lot of old buildings. I want to help make them a better place so people can enjoy them. I hope that other people will rebuild buildings. I want to have some buildings look like art. They will be colorful.

The JumpstART project gave the children of Jackson some colorful days. For some students, the JumpstART project provided their first opportunity to paint or work with an artist. For other students, the project may have helped them learn a core curriculum area at a deeper level or experience an art form in a new way. For some students, the JumpstART project may have opened doors or planted seeds for future careers. The city of Jackson should be proud of what Ask4MoreArts and Parents for Public Schools Greater Jackson has done working together with Jackson Public Schools, the business community, and local artists. As a parent, I have been inspired and reminded of the hope that springs from a community working together towards the common goal of creating rich learning experiences for the children of this city.

If you want to learn more about JumpstART, try these links:

The Jackson Free Press featured an article about JumpstART here.

You can read about the partnership between artist Sarah C. Campbell and Davis Magnet School on her blog here.

You can read articles about Casey's Jumpstart project on this blog under the label "JumpstART 2009."

The JumpstART Exhibit is currently running through May 17, 2009, at The Mississippi Arts Center.

Rhymes on Rhymes Place

2009-05-09T06:18:00.003-05:00

close up of an original poem by Hannah

the recycled billboard waiting to be unveiled

more rhymes-- some familiar and some new

Art smart parents prepare bubbles for the celebration.

The last week of April hosted another successful year of Rhymes on Rhymes Place. Casey Elementary's carpool line is on a street named Rhymes Place. When her daughter was a first grade student at Casey, Thea Faulkner had a light-bulb moment while waiting to pick up her daughter in the Rhymes Place line. After talking and brainstorming with other parents, Rhymes on Rhymes Place was begun. This year's event is the third annual celebration of poetry and rhyming. It is a sustainable and special project coordinated by art smart parents who know that supporting teachers and students in creative ways helps everyone learn more and have fun in the process!

This year's parents assisted and led events all week long with an interactive and arts-integrated visit from Mother Goose (Julie Owen) and a visit from Monique McMillon who assists children in making special hats that correlate to poetry. Parents help children make pop-up books for their rhymes, they supervise writing rhymes on the sidewalk with chalk, and they facilitate copying rhymes onto a recycled billboard that becomes the Rhymes Place banner.

On the final day of the week-long focus on rhymes and poetry, all first grade students help to unveil their collective masterpiece on Rhymes Place. Parents provide bubbles and popsicles to help the children celebrate their hard work and creativity. Below is a short video of the unveiling!

If you are a first grade parent, I would love to hear about your thoughts and experiences of this special event. What did your child or children learn about rhyming and poetry? Did they have good stories to tell about the Rhymes on Rhymes Place week? Having participated in the event for three years, I believe it improves each year from everyone's ideas and collective wisdom.

Casey Arts Alive!

2009-05-08T06:21:00.011-05:00

Last Saturday, families, teachers, and volunteers from the community spent time creating together and celebrating Casey Elementary. Over 40 people-- parents, staff, and community members-- gave time or resources to make this event happen. Thank you so much! Over 120 people attended the festival. The visual art contest had 25 entries. The Poetry Out Loud Celebration had over 15 entries-- including some last minute interest. The Art Smart Committee hopes that Casey Arts Alive will become an annual event and that each year's group of art smart parents will feel free to create the festival in new and exciting ways.

Below are slide shows from the day's events:

Dancing Together with instructor Sonita Singh

Visual Art Contest with judges Rachel Misenar, Roz Roy, and Limeul Eubanks and coordinated by Stephanie Ivy

Knitting Together with instructors Bonnie Bowley, Jennifer Deaton, Susan Nix, Donna Evans, and Kathy Devenney

Drawing Together with instructors Adrien Caroll-Perkins and Shannon Frost

Gardening Together with instructors Melanie Allen, Mrs. Morgan, and Robby Luckett

Music Together with Strings Instructor Tammy Luke and strings students

Poetry Out Loud coordinated by Serenity Luckett

Hodgepodge of hanging out, concessions, and registration-- Thank you Mrs. Rainey, Mrs. Cannon, and Mrs. Ramsey!

Transformation

2009-05-04T06:48:00.008-05:00

Transformation

We searched for tiny, white worlds,
eggs on milkweed,
like Horton and his speck of dust.

Now, we are observing
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
who must eat
and grow,
eat
and
grow.

Watching children
watch their caterpillars
and care for them
creates a chrysalis
for us to share.

Our wonder spins the silk button that
anchors our retreat and reflection.

We become more.
We are monarchs.

We emerge
together,
daily,
to fly on wings of
books, drawings, dances,
paintings, poems, stories,
questions, songs, gardens,
and dreams.

Over the weekend, one of the monarch butterflies that my family and I have been raising emerged from her chrysalis. We did this project with several other Casey families after we rescued the eggs and harvested milkweed during a special Monarch Butterfly Rescue program of the Clinton Community Nature Center. I highly recommend this annual event to all families!

I wrote "Transformation" during the process of raising "Matilda" (in photos above) from an egg to a butterfly with my children and sharing her with groups of students at various schools. I had intended to read the poem for the Poetry Out Loud portion of our Casey Family Arts Festival on Saturday, May 2, but I couldn't find my poem when it was my turn.

I also wrote this poem while writing an essay about arts integrated education for Anne Foster's Education Blog for change.org. I do not claim to be a poet. However, I love reading poetry, and I like how the process of writing a poem distills my thoughts to what is essential. Both the field study/scientific experience of raising the monarch butterflies and the creative process of crafting my poem informed the writing of the essay. Likewise, drafting the essay informed the development of the poem. Finally, a little bit of my background as a children’s librarian found it’s way into the poem, too.

Casey Elementary and its emphasis on arts integration has transformed my children's lives and my life as a parent (and librarian), too.

photos of "Matilda the Monarch" taken by Julie Owen on May 3, 2009

Rhymes, Garden, Art, and Family Fun!

2009-05-02T08:27:00.004-05:00

So much is happening in the Casey community this week that it is difficult to keep up with everything! Hopefully, I can pique your curiosity with these collages and short descriptions of each event. During the next two weeks, I will follow up with individual posts for each project. Art smart parents have been very busy!

First grade parents successfully implemented the third annual Rhymes on Rhymes Place complete with pop-up book making, poetry reading, arts integrated rhyming activities, banner making, and more.

The garden is growing, and will be featured as one of the main activities at our Casey Family Arts Festival on Saturday, May 2, from 1-4 pm. Stay tuned for a special announcement regarding Mississippi Public Broadcasting and our garden project!

Casey's JumpstART project is on display along with other projects from Ask4More Arts schools in the district at the Mississippi Arts Center now through May 17. The Arts Center is open Monday - Saturday, 10 am - 6 pm and Sunday, 1 pm - 5 pm. The exhibit opening is Saturday, May 2, 2009, from 10 am - 2 pm. You don't want to miss this amazing exhibit of student work with artists and teachers from 21 elementary schools in Jackson Public Schools.

In the collage above, judges score art entries in the visual art contest for the first ever Casey Family Arts Festival on Saturday, May 2, from 1-4 pm. Hands-on activities will be offered from 1-3 pm. Poetry Out Loud is from 3 to 4 pm. Come join us as we celebrate "Casey Arts Alive: A Celebration of Creating Together!" The visual art entries are on display. Hands-on activities are Gardening Together, Knitting Together, Dancing Together, and Drawing Together. This event is offered by Casey families for the Casey community.

Learning Styles and Arts Integration

2009-04-08T05:57:00.010-05:00

In the photos above, Mr. Howell discusses the instant bar charts that were created from inventory results of workshop participants using different colored sticky notes.

On Tuesday, April 7th, John Howell and Ann Jones from Casey Elementary, Susan Womack of Parents for Public Schools of Greater Jackson, and I as a graduate of the Parent Leadership Institute facilitated a workshop for district Ask4MoreArts teachers about Learning Styles and Arts Integration. Two sessions were offered-- one for lower elementary teachers and one for upper elementary teachers. The workshop used arts integration techniques to explore learning styles. Teachers who attended the workshop may, in turn, share this information, lessons, and techniques with colleagues, students, and parents in their schools.

The learning styles workshop is based upon a session in the curriculum for the Parent Leadership Institute. After completing the Institute in 2007, I co-facilitated a workshop for parents at Casey and at Oak Forest Elementary with Venetia Miller, another PLI graduate and Oak Forest parent. We thought this information was extremely relevant to our children's elementary schools because of their participation in the Ask4MoreArts program.

Howard Gardner's work on learning styles or multiple intelligences is a theory of education that can be used to explain why arts integrated learning works. Children learn through dancing, singing, playing, painting, creating, movement, pretending, writing, growing plants in gardens, and a host of other ways. The theory of learning styles submits that everyone has unique ways in which they learn best and in which they may be challenged to grow. A school that uses the arts to teach core academic subjects such as reading, writing, math, social studies, and science will reach more children to help them succeed because more styles of learning are nurtured and encouraged.

Under the leadership of Leslie Coleman, principal of Casey Elementary, all teachers and students at Casey took a learning styles inventory based on the work of Howard Gardner at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. Every classroom created visual displays of their learning styles, shared this information with parents, and used this information to group students in different ways for learning.

In the photos below, teachers shared representations of their personal learning styles profiles with each other. With art supplies available in the meeting room and an encouragement to let each representation emanate from their dominant learning style, teachers let their creative juices flow! Some teachers wrote poems or made creative bar charts, picture displays, or 3-dimensional objects. One teacher who scored highest as a musical learner sang her results using the notes on a scale to represent her highest to lowest scores.

Throughout the workshop, teachers asked probing questions and discussed real-life, classroom situations in which students learn differently. With video footage of Mrs. Kimble's class using movement, rap, poetry, and dance to represent ocean creatures, Mr. Howell and Ms. Jones shared how the second grade teachers at Casey used learning styles to group students during their rich study of the ocean that also resulted in the 2nd grade PTA performance.

During the workshop, I loved watching the faces of teachers light up as they shared their stories with each other. Learning about learning styles is empowering for everyone-- students, parents, administrators, and teachers!

If you would like to take an online multiple intelligences inventory, please see this site from BGFL.

If you are interested in learning more about Parents for Public Schools, Ask4MoreArts, or the Parent Leadership Institute, please call the PPS office at 601-969-6015.

Gallery Experience

2009-04-05T15:26:00.005-05:00

Several Casey families gathered at The Mississippi Museum of Art for LifeShard's "First Saturday" on April 4, 2009. Led by Amanda Cashman, students and parents learned about Raoul Dufy's art and practiced gesture, contour, and line drawings. We learned that Dufy liked drawing and painting animals, flowers, boats and the ocean, and horses. More about the exhibit and Raoul Dufy can be found here. The exhibition is called Raoul Dufy: A Celebration of Beauty, but I was not prepared for how much beauty I would see.

After practicing drawing in the style of Dufy, students could choose to complete a scavenger hunt in the gallery, write a poem based upon one of Dufy's paintings or textiles, or play in the interactive corner with textiles. As you can see from the photos above, the girls were drawn to experimenting with fashion design!

Thank you to the museum staff for offering this wonderful gallery experience to us! I learned so much that I did not know before Saturday morning. And, as always, I enjoyed taking photographs of students engaged in learning and creating.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2009-04-04T08:14:00.005-05:00

It Grows! Can you identify the plants? There are herbs, potatoes, cabbages, radishes, chard, lettuces, and onions all growing in the garden.

Mary, Mary,
Quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells,
And cockleshells,
And pretty maids all in a row.

The third annual Rhymes on Rhymes Place is coming up during the last week in April. This event was created by Casey parents and is organized and led each year by the new first grade class of parents for first grade students. April is National Poetry Month. Let's get ready to celebrate!

Farish Street Finale

2009-03-27T13:29:00.007-05:00

Thursday, March 26, 2009, was a day rich with music, drama, art, and celebration at Casey Elementary. The JumpstART project was featured during the annual Casey Arts Festival and at the PTA meeting later that night.

Jesse Robinson, local blues musician, visited the school in the morning and had children, teachers, and guests clapping and swaying to his music. On their field trip to Farish Street in February, third grade students had met Mr. Robinson and invited him to visit Casey.

At the PTA meeting later that night, third grade students presented their original plays about living in Jackson. Each student wrote short descriptions or stories about their favorite places in Jackson. Mr. Howell took these vignettes and pieced them together into three plays. The plays were dramatic collages of what our children love about our community. During the performance, the actors led the audience through Starbucks, the library, Casey Elementary and a magic show, New Stage Theatre, the YMCA, malls, The Planetarium, churches, movie theaters, The Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, the zoo, parks, Gattitown, and their homes.

After viewing a slide show put together by Mr. Miles about the JumpstART project, the multimedia panels depicting the past, present, and future of Jackson's Farish Street were displayed for everyone to see. Each class worked on one canvass or panel. Mrs. Wilson's class made the blue panel about the past. Ms. Gee's class collaged the yellow panel of the present. Mrs. Pepper's class pieced together the red panel of the future.

The slide show below is the Farish Street Finale and features photos from March 26, 2009, of student art related to JumpstART, Mr. Robinson's visit, student performances about Jackson, and the multimedia panels made by Mr. Miles, Mr. Jones, and third grade students.

As a parent of a third grader, I am grateful to the artists, the teachers, and the community members who made JumpstART possible. Thank you to Ask4More Arts and Parents for Public Schools of Jackson for funding and coordinating this project. Throughout the last two months, I witnessed joyful teaching and learning about Farish Street, Jackson, and "community." Artists learned how to work with teachers and students. Teachers learned how to work with artists, and students learned from real artists and about a real street with a past, present, and future. They photographed, drew, acted, wrote, thought, painted, cut, glued, and created.

I can't wait to learn more about other JumpstART projects across the district. I would love to hear from other parents and students about their thoughts regarding the JumpstART project. Please comment below.

Garden Surprise!

2009-03-19T07:28:00.003-05:00

When students and staff return to Casey after spring break, they will find a surprise in one of the courtyards. A small group of parents and students gathered to remove dead plants from last summer's planting, pull weeds, work the beds, and replant some of the beds with herbs, flowers, and spring vegetables. Green Oak Gardening Center generously donated the herb plants, marigolds, and some vegetables. Melanie Allen, Casey parent, also brought some radish and spinach seedlings that she had started at home. Mrs. Allen is working hard to secure grant money and find donations for the gardening project. Because of her work, we also have some plant donations on the way from Burpee Seed Company!

Last summer, Serenity Luckett (another Casey parent) organized the creation of the garden through a partnership with Rainbow Whole Foods Co-Operative Grocery. Carl Allen built the garden boxes one very hot day in May. Many Casey families, staff from Rainbow, and a few Casey teachers gathered in June to haul dirt and plant vegetable seeds. The Allens, the Lucketts, and several other Casey families met each week during the summer to work in the garden, record observations, and do art activities related to the garden.

The entire gardening project has been coordinated and managed by Casey parents. We hope Casey teachers will be able to do some gardening activities this spring, and we hope to offer another gardening experience this summer. If you are interested in getting your hands a little dirty, please comment below!

All photos from last summer's gardening project may be viewed here:

Thank you to everyone who is making this gardening experience possible for Casey students and families!

JumpstART at Casey is. . .

2009-03-14T07:19:00.014-05:00

Writing and imagining our futures. . .

Teachers working with artists, artists working with teachers. . .

Listening to music. . .

Researching the past. . .

Creating together. . .

Reflecting alone. . .

Interacting with artists, albums, magazines, books, canvasses, paints, glue, brushes, thoughts, paper, instruments, cameras, mosaic tiles and mirrors, pencils, scissors, photos, dreams, history, and each other. . .

Concentrating. . .

Artists learning with students, students learning with artists. . .

Making community and having some fun along the way.

The following slide-show includes every photo (330!) that I took during JumpstART and photos taken by Bonnie Bowley and my daughter on the field trip to Farish Street and downtown Jackson. There is also a short video at the beginning of the slide show. During the video, you can hear music in the background from Mrs. Wilson's room. The photos are in reverse order from latest taken to oldest.

Friday, March 13, 2009, was the last day that Mr. Miles and Mr. Jones worked with third grade students and teachers at Casey. Their JumpstART Project will be presented at the March 26th PTA meeting. A special meeting for third grade parents will start at 5:30 pm. The PTA program about JumpstART and dramatic interpretations about the city of Jackson directed by Mr. Howell will begin at 6:30 pm. Will you join us?

Celebrate Arts Education Month!

2009-03-10T14:07:00.003-05:00

After-school ballet class with
Ballet Mississippi instructor, Julie Moran

March is National Arts Education Month!

Top 10 Suggestions for Celebrating Arts Education Month

1) Ask your child every day about what arts activities he/she did in school.

2) Observe your child's classroom during an arts integrated lesson.

3) Visit a music, drama, art, or library class at Casey.

4) Write a letter to our school board, a newspaper editor, or the state legislature in support of arts integration.

5) Thank our Casey teachers and administration for their creative ideas.

6) Support your child in their creative pursuits.

7) Tour a local museum or attend a cultural or arts event in Jackson.

8) Offer to help a classroom teacher with an arts project or arts integrated lesson.

9) Help your child learn about a new author, artist, musician, poet, actor, or dancer.

10) Save the date for the Casey Family Arts Festival on May 2, 2009!

What other ideas would you like to share? Please comment below.

Blooming Flowers, Art, and a Special Award

2009-03-06T10:49:00.006-06:00

The trees around our school are in full bloom reminding us that spring break is on the way! I like to think that there is always something blooming at Casey-- minds, hopes, creativity, art, and community.

Mrs. Chicosky's students used colors and shapes to create this beautiful sunflower garden that is posted just outside the second courtyard in which parents and students started a vegetable garden last summer. Parents and teachers hope to get the garden growing again soon!

With district 9 weeks testing underway, the JumpstART project was limited to Mrs. Pepper's class today. Students joined the artists in the hallway to piece together their mosaics from glass and mirrors. Grouting will take place next.

Photos from in and around Casey on Thursday, March 5, and Friday, March 6, 2009

Congratulations to Mr. Howell, Casey Arts Facilitator and Drama Instructor, for being named the Thad Cochran Distinguished Arts Educator for Arts Integration by the The Mississippi Alliance for Arts Education. Mr. Howell will be recognized at a special luncheon at the MSU Riley Center in Meridian, Mississippi, on April 2, 2009. Please join me in expressing our joy to Mr. Howell for this special honor!

Good Idea for Home

2009-03-03T15:38:00.007-06:00

Just in time for Arts Education Month. . . a music video for Tanya Davis' song "Art" by Andrea Dorfman.

I found this video link today in a blog post by Amanda Blake Soule on her blog that I check every day for creative ideas of artsy/craftsy things to do at home. On this post, titled "in the morning," she put out paper, paint brushes, and watercolors after her children went to bed so that they would find them on the table, ready for creativity, when they woke up in the morning.

I think this is a wonderful idea for a "staycation" or weekend activity, and I plan to do this with my own children over spring break since we are having a leisurely week at home. Maybe they will let me sleep-in a little if they are busy making things at the table in the kitchen, and I'll have a mini art show waiting for me when I wake up.

JumpstART Mosaics, Silhouettes, and Collages

2009-02-27T11:25:00.012-06:00

Today, Mrs. Pepper's third grade class made mosaics of an image of the King Edward Hotel that was projected onto the white board at the front of the classroom. They were practicing the technique with paper to prepare for creating a mosaic from small, square tiles and mirrors. Mrs. Bowley, a third grade parent, sent a book to share with the class entitled Saint Valentine by Robert Sabuda which uses mosaics for its illustrations.

Mrs. Wilson's class drew musical instruments that will be incorporated into their mixed-media art piece. Mr. Shambé and Mr. Miles also traced each student's silhouette in the teachers' lounge using two overhead projectors. Mr. Miles found an old guitar that he plans to break apart into pieces that will be added to their project.

Students in Ms. Gee's class focused on collage today. They viewed a large print of a collage by Romare Bearden, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance. Then, they began cutting images from old magazines and from their own photographs of Farish Street to mix into their portion of the JumpstART project.

Below is a slide show of all photos I took today. I ran out of battery power towards the end, so I apologize that there are not as many photos from Ms. Gee's class as from the other two third grade classrooms. Through these photos, I hope you may glimpse some of the work students, teachers, and artists did together this morning.

The third graders will be presenting their JumpstART project at the Casey Arts Festival and PTA program on March 26, 2009. There will also be a special meeting for third grade parents that night. Mark your calendars now!

Posters for Dance Performance

2009-02-26T21:07:00.001-06:00

These artistic posters were made by fourth grade students to advertise their dance performance at the PTA meeting on Thursday, February 19, 2009. By all accounts, the hard work of the fourth grade students and their dance instructor, Maliaka Quarterman, was on full display. The fourth graders had been studying dance since November. They focused on the lives and work of African American choreographers Alvin Ailey and Michael Peters. It was a performance not to be missed.

Did you the see the amazing, fourth grade students? Do you have anything to share about what you saw?

If you are a parent of a fourth grader, was your child excited about this project? What did he/she think and learn?

Please, comment below!

Loving Casey

2009-02-22T14:42:00.006-06:00

Written by Carrie Bevell Partridge, Casey parent

I think that my children are naturally creative, but I know for a fact that their creativity is enhanced by their education at Casey Elementary School. They come home talking about their projects and creations, and I love that these are not confined to Art Class, as it is in so many other schools (if they are fortunate enough to still be able to have Art Class). At Casey, Art Class is a wonderful addition to an already arts-integrated education.

Earlier this year, my son came home and rattled off an entire description and facts about the artist Paul Clay. Personally, I was not familiar with this artist, but my kindergartener had great things to say about him and even said he wanted to be like him when he grew up! I was so impressed that my son had retained all of this information and was intrigued by the fact that he was so intrigued.

The arts and creative thinking are not limited to school hours for my children. They come home and are excited to continue to create and even to extend their school day, so to speak (They get to become the teachers!). They mimic their teachers' enthusiasm and drive. They create stories, pictures, plays, dances, and songs, and they make their younger sister excited about one day going to Casey, too. And they are just as excited about reading, math, and science as they are about art and music.

As a Casey parent, I always love walking the halls at this school. I love seeing the students' creative work that is displayed all over the school. And while I do seek out my own children's projects, I find myself entranced by the work of all of the students. It is colorful and eye-catching, and any observer can tell that these students take great pride in their work. And I know that the students wouldn't be as excited about it all if it were not for their teachers' enthusiasm for the creative process in education. We are so thankful for this! We are so thankful for Casey Elementary School, and we sing its praises all over Jackson. In fact, my children are always quick to point out--with great pride--that their school is a creative arts school!

"Hands-On" in the Hallway

2009-02-20T12:04:00.018-06:00

Learning can take place anywhere-- on a field trip, in the classroom, or even in a hallway!

Today, Casey third graders began the creation of their mixed media art pieces for the JumpstART grant. Small groups of students took turns painting the backgrounds of large canvasses under the direction of Mr. Miles and Mr. Shambé. Future Friday sessions will layer more paint, photos, glass, and mirrors to complete the mixed-media projects. In the classrooms, students reviewed their photographs from the field trip and sketched their own versions of Farish Street in the past, present, and future.

In the hallway. . .

In the classrooms. . .

In the hallway. . .

In the classrooms. . .

Mrs. Pepper sorted and reviewed photos from the field trip with a small group of students and constructively geared all conversation and thoughts towards the future. Mrs. Wilson read Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and his Orchestr a by Brian and Andrea Pinkney to the class while they imagined and drew a hustling, bustling Farish Street of the past. Ms. Gee consulted with the artists before students began their painting in the hallway and drawing abstract versions of a present Farish Street from details in their photographs from the field trip.

This student recorded the steps of painting the canvass in his little notebook so that he could "do the same thing at home." He also interviewed students in his small group about their thoughts for the future of Farish Street. His note-taking and interviewing were done on his own initiative without any prompting from anyone else. I was also taking notes in my little notebook today and last week. We were kindred spirits. Before I left the classroom to continue with my day of grocery shopping and errands, he gave me his notes. I have them stuck in my little notebook of notes, and I will keep them safe-- and treasure them.

Update: The artwork that one third grade boy gave Mr. Miles last Friday is now on his refrigerator. He plans to get it framed. Today, the student told him that he might want to color it before he frames it.

Photos were taken by Julie Owen and Bonnie Bowley (third grade parents) and Mrs. Pepper (third grade teacher). We passed around my Canon PowerShot SD880 IS Digital Elph-- great camera!

All parents are invited to help and/or observe on Friday mornings!

Strings Concert and Music Education Advocacy

2009-02-18T10:48:00.003-06:00

Students from Jackson Public Schools strings programs, including Casey Elementary, gathered on the stage at Murrah High School to prepare for their performances at the All City Music Festival on Tuesday, February 10, 2009.

Parents and strings teachers helped students tune their instruments.

The lower elementary students performed in the gym of Murrah High School under the direction of Temperance Babcock-Steiskal, instructor at the Suzuki Strings program in Flowood, Mississippi.

Upper elementary students performed under the direction of Carla Briggs, director of the instrumental music program at Power APAC.

More information about this concert and the strings program at Casey and in other schools in JPS can be found here.

A wonderful resource for music education advocacy can be found here on the website for Music Education Online presented by Children's Music Workshop.

Just a few advocacy quotes that I liked from this site (you can read many more on the site):

"College admissions officers continue to cite participation in music as an important factor in making admissions decisions. They claim that music participation demonstrates time management, creativity, expression, and open-mindedness." - Carl Hartman, “Arts May Improve Students’ Grades,” The Associated Press, October, 1999.

“Music is exciting. It is thrilling to be sitting in a group of musicians playing (more or less) the same piece of music. You are part of a great, powerful, vibrant entity. And nothing beats the feeling you get when you've practiced a difficult section over and over and finally get it right. (yes, even on the wood block.) Music is important. It says things you heart can't say any other way, and in a language everyone speaks. Music crosses borders, turns smiles into frowns, and vice versa. These observations are shared with a hope: that, when schools cut back on music classes, they really think about what they're doing - and don't take music for granted." - Dan Rather — Journalist and Former CBS News Anchor

"It is our job, as parents, educators, and friends, to see that our young people have the opportunity to attain the thorough education that will prepare them for the future. Much of that education takes place in the classroom. We must encourage our youngsters in such pursuits as music education. In addition to learning the valuable lesson that it takes hard work to achieve success, no matter what the arena, music education can provide students with a strong sense of determination, improved communication skills, and a host of other qualities essential for successful living." - Edward H. Rensi – President and Chief Operation Officer, U.S.A. McDonald's Corporation

As a parent, I am grateful for the outstanding music education my children receive in JPS as part of their regular, weekly music classes and as part of special programs like strings instruction.

First JumpstART Friday

2009-02-14T06:42:00.029-06:00

Visitors to Casey's third grade hallway will find photos of Farish Street posted on the brick walls. Third grade students, teachers, and parents visited Farish Street through a field trip on Monday. Before visiting each classroom as part of the JumpstART grant, Mr. Miles and Mr. Shambé (artist partners) consulted with Mrs. Wilson (third grade teacher) about what students had already done related to the project and discussed what their visit that day should try to accomplish.

Once in the classroom, students asked the artists many questions about art and being artists. This was the first time that they had met Mr. Shambé who will also be working with third grade students on the JumpstART project. He told the students that he works with many different mediums as an artist including drawing, sculpture, collage, painting, and wood-burning. He also has his own t-shirt business featuring his own graphic designs! One observant student noticed that Mr. Miles was wearing one of these t-shirts because she also saw the design in Mr. Shambé's portfolio. The design on Mr. Mile's t-shirt was of legendary musician Jimmy Hendrix.

Mr. Shambé's portfolio, a small photo album that holds 4 x 6 photographs, was passed around by the students. They wanted to know how he started being an artist. Mr. Shambé said that he got his start copying cartoon characters and superheroes. Now he is inspired by musical artists, history, and by the natural world around him. He currently likes to work with wood-burning because he enjoys using natural materials.

Mr. Miles shared two photographs from his Backyard Mississippi series. In 2005, he traveled to the Delta and captured images of a little girl in her backyard. He likes to use natural light and tries to photograph things as they happen rather than trying to stage scenes. He was snapping a photograph of the girl when a group of turkeys came running into the yard. He snapped away and got an amazing series of shots. He reflected that this scene in Greenwood, Mississippi, reminded him so much about the past because of the simple surroundings. "It had an old-timey feel," said Mr. Miles. "It was like stepping back into the movie, The Color Purple."

Some of Mrs. Wilson's students had written amazing reflections about the field trip, and they shared these with Mr. Miles and Mr. Shambé while they listened to blues music from a vinyl album on a record player. Mrs. Wilson pointed out that the students were making good use of the connecting/transition words that they had been studying that week. Students in Mrs. Wilson's class are looking at the "past" for the JumpstART project. They plan to incorporate vinyl albums into their mixed-media art creation along with pieces of Jackson's history through newspaper clippings about the Flood of 1921, Trumpet Records, and blues artists of the times.

For different reasons, Ms. Gee and Mrs. Pepper have both been absent from school for the last few days. Both of these classes had substitute teachers on Friday morning, but this didn't stop the children from engaging the artists and their art and from wanting to talk about their thoughts and visions for their pieces of the art project which will focus on the present (Ms. Gee's class) and the future (Mrs. Pepper's class). Ms. Gee's class will use collage and photography while Mrs. Pepper's class will work with mosaics to create hopes for the future.

In all classrooms, the students introduced themselves to the artists. Students in Ms. Gee's and Mrs. Pepper's classes also shared a little about themselves such as a hobby or what they want to be when they grow up. Casey is producing many future basketball players and many future artists! Can you believe that there are more future artists in the third grade than any other profession?

While the morning was intended to be a mixture of getting to know one another, reflecting, and brainstorming, much more happened. Both Mr. Miles and Mr. Shambé impressed upon the students the idea that they are responsible for making sure the re-furbished Farish Street does not ever lapse back into its current state of abandonment and disrepair. "You are the future citizens of Jackson who will need to care for this city and the people in it," they both said.

About the artistic process, both artists reflected on finding creative ways to transform and incorporate mistakes or accidents into something new. If the Farish Street project is anything, it is this-- taking the mistakes our city has made through years of neglect and transforming empty lots and piles of bricks into something beautiful, functional, and new. I am thrilled that our students can share in this community revitalization through their writing and art.

And finally, while many ideas were exchanged (and laughter and smiles), there was also a poignant exchange of art. Mr. Miles had been watching a boy who had been doodling and drawing during the class. He leaned over to me and said, "That little boy is me. That is exactly what I would have been doing." A few minutes later, the student gave Mr. Miles his drawing and told him that it was an "expressive" piece. Mr. Miles offered thanks through a fist bump and gave the boy one of his photographs. It was a moment of hope and joy. As a parent, I am thankful for this moment and all of the recorded and unrecorded moments that will happen throughout this JumpstART project. Who knows what short and long term effects this project will create?

Have you asked your child about Friday morning's visit with Mr. Miles and Mr. Shambé? Have you read what he/she may have written about the field trip? Have you encouraged your child to draw or record his/her ideas for the multimedia art project?

The artists will be meeting with each class on Friday mornings for the next few weeks. Once the supplies arrive (hopefully by next Friday), the students will be diving into the hands-on art portion of the project. Parents are welcome in the classroom. And, if anyone would like to volunteer to photograph and/or write reflections, please let me know. I welcome and encourage other parent voices on this blog.

Field trip to Farish Street

2009-02-10T17:06:00.005-06:00

Photo by Bonnie Bowley, Casey parent

Reflections on the field trip to Farish Street by Bonnie Bowley, Casey parent:

"Today I spent the better part of my day accompanying 70+ third graders, their teachers, some parents, and artist George Miles on a fascinating trip to downtown Jackson. As a non-native Mississippian, I learned a lot about Jackson and found this field trip an eye-opening and satisfying experience.

We began with a walk back in time when we stepped through the doors of the Smith Robertson School, for years a school for African American children and now a museum and cultural center celebrating the contributions of many African American artists. With about twelve beautifully crafted quilts made by artist Ravin J. Hill gracing the walls around us, we sat and heard storyteller Diane Williams describe what life was like back in the mid-1800’s through the eyes of “Bessie Sue,” a young black slave girl yearning for freedom in the midst of her hardships.

Photo by Bonnie Bowley

Photo by John Howell, Casey Arts Facilitator

Following lunch in the Senior Center adjacent to Smith Robertson Museum, we strolled historic Farish Street with urban planner Carl Allen and Jackson-based hip-hop artist Kamikaze. They described the hustle and bustle of Farish Street life decades ago. Today, a law firm, shoe repair shop, Peaches’ Café, and renovated Alamo Theater give us a peek into what this area can once again become. Our guides helped us envision the future of the brick-laden street, the now vacant and mostly dilapidated buildings one day transformed into offices, shops, restaurants, blues clubs, and more. As we rambled the sidewalks of Farish Street, we even encountered blues guitarist and vocalist Jesse Robinson. Meanwhile, the dozens of Casey third graders excitedly snapped photos of it all.

Photo by John Howell

Union Station and its adjacent edifice the King Edward Hotel were our trip’s final destinations. While Farish Street’s most glorious days were in years past, Union Station has already been restored and serves its patrons today, and the King Edward Hotel’s current renovations show the promise of a wonderfully restored Jackson landmark in the not-too-distant future. We saw glimpses of the past, present, and future of Jackson all in one day, helping us to better understand this city we call our home. "

On behalf of all Casey parents, thank you to these parents who joined the third grade classes on the field trip: Bonnie Bowley, Amy and Monte Kraus, Bridget Townsend, Melanie and Carl Allen, Shannon Kessee, and Toveta Kent!

Photo by MEO, Casey third grader

Reflections from Mr. Howell, Casey Arts Facilitator:

"Our field trip yesterday was really great. The weather was perfect. The kids saw a lot and took a lot of pictures. At the Smith Robertson Museum they saw Diane Williams act out a piece about a runaway slave who uses quilts to guide her to freedom. The students toured Farish Street so and photographed what they saw. We even ran into a blues musician (Jesse Robinson) who happened to be there, and he's interested in coming to the school. Carl Allen (Maggie's dad) was one of our tour guides along with Brad "Kamikaze" Franklin, and they and Gwen McClellan gave us a fantastic talk about the history of the King Edward. I really think the students got a lot out of the day. They got to see a unique part of their home city in much more detail than usual. It was educational for the teachers and parents who attended as well."

Do you have photos or reflections from the field trip that you would like to share? Please let me know or comment below!

LifeShards and the Dufy Exhibit

2009-02-06T06:24:00.003-06:00

Photos by Kay Holloway from December 2008 LifeShards

You are invited to the Mississippi Museum of Art’s opening of the exhibition Raoul Dufy: A Celebration of Beauty Saturday, February 7. There will be activities in the galleries from 10:00-2:00. There is no cost for LifeShards participants. Please sign the sheet marked LifeShards which will be at the admission desk at the entrance of the exhibition. After you sign in, you will be given a Dufy sticker which allows you to go in the galleries. Looking forward to having you for this fun, exciting day!

For more information, contact:
Ivy Alley
Curator of Education,
Docents and Volunteers
380 South Lamar Street
Jackson , MS 39201
tel. 601.960.1515 fax 601.960.1505
www.msmuseumart.org

Special Note:

If you have been LifeShards regulars or if you want to visit LifeShards for the first time, I want to let you know that it is in a process of transition. The administration / management of LifeShards is shifting from Parents for Public Schools of Greater Jackson to the Museum. It may not look and feel exactly as it has in the past but it will continue to be a great opportunity for families to have quality arts experiences. This Saturday promises to be a special treat. Please help us spread the word!

Third graders meet George Miles

2009-02-02T18:06:00.002-06:00

This morning, the third graders gathered in the library to learn about the project they will be doing over the next several weeks. Mr. Howell introduced them to the artist George Miles (he prefers to be called "Miles") and explained that they will all be working together to create an artwork about downtown Jackson. The students were asked what they already knew about Farish Street and the King Edward Hotel, and they were shown photographs of these areas taken recently by Miles, Ms. Jones, and Mr. Howell.

The students asked Miles about being an artist, and he told them that making art was extremely important to him and that it gave his life great purpose and satisfaction. They learned that he has had a number of artworks displayed in museums and sold and that his personal favorite artist is the photographer Gordon Parks. Miles and Mr. Howell told the students that when they take their own field trip downtown next Monday, they will need to look at what they find with the eyes of an artist, take notes of what they learn, and take pictures with cameras (many of them will share disposable cameras next week) of the things they find most interesting.

Documentation (photos and writing) by Mr. John Howell, Casey Arts Facilitator and Drama Instructor

Parents of third graders at Casey, ask your child about meeting Mr. Miles, "Miles," today. Is he/she excited about the project? Is he/she looking forward to the "all day" field trip next Monday? I would love to know what our young minds are thinking . . .

Parents, what questions or thoughts do you have?

Growing up through art

2009-02-01T10:41:00.012-06:00

When we moved to Jackson in January of 2006, a flyer came home from my daughter's school about a community art project at the Mississippi Museum of Art called LifeShards. She was just entering Casey Elementary as a Kindergarten student, and my 2-year-old son was not yet in school.

Even though our house was still full of boxes that needed to be unpacked, we went to the first meeting of LifeShards on that first Saturday in January. Originally, LifeShards was a community response to Katrina, and it aimed to help families -- post Katrina-- connect with each other through making mosaics. Since we were new to Jackson, it helped us make new friends. And, coming from a small Mississippi town, we were eager to take advantage of the many cultural opportunities Jackson has to offer.

We made many individual and collective projects with mosaics including a piece for the Mississippi Museum of Art and a piece for the Mississippi Department of Education. My house has evidence of LifeShards all through it-- light switch plates, tiles, birdhouses, and picture frames. As LifeShards changed from its focus on mosaics to other art forms, it also began to meet once a month on the first Saturday instead of every Saturday. While we have not been to every single LifeShards gathering, we have made most of them.

We have had great fun through these three years and have learned so much from artists, friends, and each other. We have made mosaics and Styrofoam prints, drawn portraits, collaged, painted, and pieced together paper quilts. We have re-purposed recycled materials and fashioned figures, musical instruments, flying shoes, and altered books. We have taken knowledge of new art techniques acquired at LifeShards and shared them with others at church, other schools, and at home. We have incorporated skills learned into projects for school. We have been guided through exhibits of Jacob Lawrence, Marshall Bouldin III, and John James Audubon at the Mississippi Museum of Art.

The photo collages in this post reveal how my children have grown in three years. I am so grateful for how LifeShards has both enriched and changed our lives. I hope that Lifeshards will continue and that I may continue to watch my children grow through visual art experiences.

Growing up in a small town Arkansas, I did not have an opportunity like this. While I had some exposure to art in elementary school, the tracks we took in junior high and high school were determined by scheduling. If I wanted to play an instrument, I couldn't also be in choir or visual arts. My children have already learned in three short years what I have learned in forty years. My first serious exposure to visual arts was in college. Theirs was at ages 3 and 6. Just the other day, I overheard my now 9-year-old daughter explaining to my 6-year-old son how and why Matisse started making cut-outs. Thank you Casey. Thank you LifeShards.

All of these amazing photos and more were taken by Kay Holloway and can be viewed on Elizabeth Robinson's photo sets on Flickr. Kay's photographs of the children, activities, artwork, and materials document three years of community and creativity at LifeShards. Families from all over Jackson have attended LifeShards, including several families from Casey Elementary.

Won't you join us? Do you have a LifeShards story to tell?

Construction and strings

2009-01-28T06:29:00.005-06:00

What does the above photo collage have in common with the one below?

On Tuesday afternoon, big machines were digging dirt and making mechanical noises outside on the playground while strings students were playing their violins and making musical noises inside a portable building. The earth moving is one of the first visible steps towards the new addition that will hold a strings classroom and so much more.

All around Casey, there was a joyful noise!

JumpstART Grant for Third Grade

2009-01-25T09:10:00.009-06:00

In the above photo collage, Mr. Howell used drama to help Mrs. Pepper's third grade class think about the city of Jackson. After having written a short description of their favorite place in Jackson for homework, the students were instructed to close their eyes and imagine that place. Then, students pantomimed what they would be doing in that place. Some of the favorite activities and places these students chose included swimming at the pool at the YMCA, hunting in the woods, and playing checkers at home.

All third grade classes will be thinking a lot about Jackson and "place" and "community" in the coming months. Through the Ask4MoreArts Initiative, Casey has received a $2000.00 grant to JumpstART a collaborative teaching/learning project between a local artist, teachers, and students. This grant was available to all AFMA partner schools in JPS. The goal of JumpstART is to support innovative arts integrated pilot projects that address the theme: Our Community – A Sense of Place.

More details will follow, but every third grade family should have received an initial description of the project and information about an upcoming field trip associated with this project on Feb. 9th. They will go to the Smith Robertson Museum and downtown to Farish Street.

George Miles is the artist who will be working with all three third grade classrooms. Information about him can be found at these two links:

http://www.arts.state.ms.us/artist-roster/artist.php?n=miles_george&r=artist-roster

and

http://www.visualarts.ms.gov/ViewListing.aspx?ListingID=143

The next phase of the project will involve weekly sessions between each third grade class and Mr. Miles. He will guide the students through construction of an art project, and the final project will be displayed at the Casey Arts Festival in March. Ms. Gee's class will focus on the past, Mrs. Wilson's class will look at the present, and Mrs. Pepper's class will imagine the future. The teachers and the artist are still working out details, but Art Smart Parents will be able to assist in each phase of the project!

Isn't this exciting?

Let's Start Again

2009-01-21T09:24:00.002-06:00

DSCN8267
Originally uploaded by nolteowe

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog, and I never really got it off the ground. But, I'm revamping it as an experiment for both reflection and documentation of the work that I and other parents do as arts education advocates.

So, to start again, here is my Top Ten List of ways that parents at Casey Elementary have been involved and impacted arts integration in the last few years:

10) Seven parents have graduated from the Parent Leadership Institute of Parents for Public Schools of Jackson. With grant money from the Parent Leadership Institute, parents have brought two visiting artists to Casey.

9) Parents have been actively involved in developing brochures about Art Smart Parents for the Jackson Public School District. Parents serve on the Arts Advisory Leadership Committee for Ask4MoreArts.

8) For two consecutive years, parents have successfully created and implemented a special week long activity for first graders called Rhymes at Rhymes Place.

7) Parents have attended Ask4MoreArts Professional Development workshops alongside teachers from Casey and the district.

6) Parents attend and support Lifeshards at the Mississippi Museum of Art to supplement their childrens' exposure to visual arts in a museum setting.

5) Parents have taken experiences and learning from Ask4More workshops and Lifeshards and led similar workshops for other parents in the district and classrooms of children at other schools in the district.

4) Parents have offered workshops on Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences to other parents at Casey, other parents in the district, and teachers and students at Casey.

3) Alongside teachers from Casey and the district, three parents have attended the Mississippi Arts Commission's Whole Schools Institute in the summers of 2007 and 2008.

2) Parents initiated, planned, developed, and maintained the summer gardening project called the Rainbow Garden and offered art activities alongside a gardening experience each Thursday during the summer of 2008.

1) Three parents presented a workshop on Rhymes at Rhymes Place at the 2008 Fall Retreat for the Whole Schools Initiative.

Now, these are just highlights. There are countless other ways that parents support arts integration every day. We help teachers with projects in the classroom. We help our own children with projects at home. We take our children to arts events in the community. We attend arts advisory meetings to stay aware of what teachers are planning and doing. We help hang up and take down artwork in the hallways every few weeks. We plan receptions for special arts events. We write letters to the editor and to legislators in support of arts education. We monitor arts integration through site council and PTA. We celebrate our school's achievements, and we work together to meet its challenges. Finally, we revel in the dance, music, and drama performances our children share with us and the community.

So much is going on.

Hand Made Journals at the Rainbow Garden

2008-07-30T07:32:00.001-05:00

DSCN7962
Originally uploaded by nolteowen

What fun we had today in the garden! Many of the plants have grown at least 2 inches from last week. But, we are worried that the tomatoes and the gourds are not going to make it up.

We made our own observation journals using these instructions to record our thoughts, measurements, and drawings. We recycled used copy paper and rubber bands from newspapers to make our journals. We learned that Edith Holden had a garden journal over 100 years ago, and we looked at some of her drawings and read some of her journal entries from The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.

"Make and Take Night"

2007-09-25T08:16:00.000-05:00

On Thursday, September 20th, Casey Elementary's teachers and PTA hosted its annual "Make and Take Night" for parents and students. "Make and Take" is a perfect example of the collaborative and creative learning community created by teachers, students, and parents at Casey. At this event, parents and students of each grade level gather in a classroom to experience an arts integration lesson facilitated by teachers. This gives teachers and students the opportunity to share with parents what happens in the classroom at Casey every day.

The second grade "Make and Take" met in Mrs. Washington's classroom and was led by Mrs. Washington, Mrs. Kimble, and Mrs. Usry. The classroom was crowded with parents, Casey students, and siblings. This arts integration lesson included a read-aloud of Ed Emberly's Go Away, Big Green Monster!, a discussion of the descriptive elements of the story with a circle map, and an imaginative art project in which parents and students enjoyed working together to create their own versions of "the big green monster." Each monster was unique-- just like the students at Casey!