Rhymes on Rhymes Place

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!

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

Rhymes, Garden, Art, and Family Fun!

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.

Loving Casey

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!

Let's Start Again

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.