"Play it again, Sam."

(The “S” in my name came from my grandfather Sam. )

First grade is the most cerebral of elementary school learners. 

According to the Art Education Curriculum, it is the 1^st Graders who learn about patterns and visual repetition.  These are abstract concepts which are a huge challenge to turn into concrete, meaningful art.

This year with class time reduced to 25 minutes a session, fun in learning was drying out to a crisp. Materials were reduced from the juicy gooey wet tempera to pencil, color pencil and artstix.

“Honey, I shrunk the kids’” fun syndrome boxed me in. After weeks of feeling the  terrible restrictions, I broke into song. If I couldn't juice up the art materials, I could juice up by sound. 

My Casio keyboard was advancing in age by dust accumulation so I dragged it out and livened it up in school. The first day, I let the children hear what “cleaning” sounded like as I turned the power on while cleaning the keys with babywipes.  The dust hit the floor like bouncing miceballs.

By the second week, it was cleaned out enough to start planking away.

The best way to excite children is to include them in the creative decision making process.   The Art Concept “ Contrast” was the goal to sing out.

So I asked the class if someone can start the song up.  Sure enough, Sarah  began to sing and it caught my ear…she sang “Light/Dark…..” hey! That works for Contrast!   A little feel of “Night and Day” in the opening and we had our song: “Light/Dark/Light/Dark…..in our Art we have Contrast”.  Ok…it doesn’t rhyme. But the tune was catchy in a minor chord. 

Most importantly, without drilling, without unwilling wordy repetition, the soft chant hummed all through the visual application of the lesson. These children were thrilled to write and sing a song about their Art. 

And like  Bo-g-art's ‘Sam”, these students will be on school TV next week to “sing it again”!