Kindergartners act out the paint-scrubbing scene of 'Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm' with Wolf Trap artist Jeanne Wall (back left). The pupils imagined themselves as farm animals including cows and ducks. REZA MARVASHTI/THE FREE LANCE-STAR View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

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LESSONS COME ALIVE ENGAGING YOUNG LEARNERS>> Wolf Trap artists teach with story

Wolf Trap Institute engages kindergartners, educators at Bowling Green Primary School

By KAREN FALLEN RHODES

Date published: 3/10/2007

Every good teacher knows that teaching is as much an art as a science.

That was literally true this week at Bowling Green Primary School in Caroline County, where visiting artists from Wolf Trap Institute took center stage in kindergarten classrooms.

In one class a man in beret and bright T-shirt loomed behind a cardboard barn. All eyes were on the screen between the barn doors, where Overalls the Dog and other characters taught the children about letter sounds and animal habitats.

Teaching artist Joe Pipik called each child individually to bring a shadow puppet to life before letting the children decide if the animal rightly belonged on the farm, in the zoo, or in the forest.

Principal Debra Holt was fascinated. "Who says you can't keep the kids' attention?" she said.

Next door in Alison Neal's class, teaching artist Jeanne Wall turned each student into a character in "Mrs. Wishy Washy's Farm."

Ordinary kindergartners transformed into pigs, cows and ducks, who invaded a hardware store and caused a paint-spattered ruckus.

With the help of an apron and bonnet, Neal became a farm woman who put the animals into a metal tub and peeled off the mess--actually paint-spattered T-shirts--with a scrub brush.

It's all part of what the Wolf Trap artists call "extending the story," allowing the children to explore what someone else might think, feel or do.

Across the hall, master artist Valerie Carroll wrapped up an imaginary journey to Ghana, in which children heard traditional African tales and learned about jungle animals.

"When you bring the performing arts into education, the kids are learning by doing," Carroll said. "They have fun, so they are really engaged. It stays with them that much more."

The Wolf Trap program aims to show teachers that incorporating the performing arts into the curriculum can be simple and not time-consuming.

"We're not performing as much as using drama techniques in the classroom," Wall explained. "The idea is that we're modeling integrated lessons. They're good for the children, and the teachers see how the children respond."

Carroll agreed. "We're trying to show drama not as something additional, that takes more time, but as a teaching methodology."

Alison Neal said she believes the week with these artists, who travel around doing residencies from one to seven weeks, will make a difference in her lessons.

"I don't have a drama background," she said. "It's nice to see ways to add that."

Among the Wolf Trap artists' specialties are music, puppeteering and circus tricks such as juggling and unicycling.

This is the second year the institute has sent artists to Bowling Green Primary. Principal Holt is clearly a fan, and she hopes her teachers will be as well.

"I think after this week," she predicted, "many of the teachers will start looking for puppets."

Karen Fallen Rhodes: karenrhodes015@yahoo.com

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Date published: 3/10/2007