You’re invited to the 5th Annual Summer Pageant in the Park

Theatre Action Project presents its 5th annual Summer Pageant in the Park celebrating How our Food Grows on Saturday, June 23rd at Republic Square Park. Students will gather at the Sustainable Food Center Farmers’ Market Downtown to march in a grand procession of the year’s seasons, bringing all their puppets together culminating in a visual and aural spectacle. The public is invited to join the parade. The FREE family event will be followed by fun watermelon-eating and seed-spitting contests hosted by the Farmer’s Market as part of the Watermelon Festival.

The Summer Pageant in the Park event is the culmination of work with students from nine Central Texas schools who are learning effects of the changing seasons on food harvest, native Texas farming, and the benefits of healthy eating. Participating elementary schools include Barrington, Brown, Harris, Hart, Maplewood, Pickle, Widen, Winn, and Wooten.

Caroline Reck, Programming Specialist with Theatre Action Project, shared her excitement about this year’s pageant. “Summer Pageant is an extraordinary opportunity for our community to connect to world traditions of puppetry and parade while celebrating healthy and sustainable eating habits. It is truly inspiring to see the quality and quantity of parade materials being created by students all over Austin coalesce into a harmonious spectacle of sight and sound right in the Downtown Farmer’s Market.”

Students will gather at 10 a.m. to march in the Grand Procession of the Seasons. The Downtown Farmer’s Market is located at Republic Square Park, 422 W. Guadalupe, Austin, TX 78701. The public is invited to join in the procession, celebrating food, farming and the four seasons. FREE! For more information, call Theatre Action Project: (512) 442-8773.

PS: For a look back at last year’s fun Summer Pageant procession, enjoy this video.

Mr. Chad’s Amazing Students

by Chad Dike, Teaching Artist at Widen Elementary School

I thought my last blog of my first year teaching for Theatre Action Project (TAP) would be best used to showcase my amazing students. Here is a story my Pre-K created in class.

Once upon a time there was a normal Pre-K Class.

And every day they drew on each other and painted Mr. Chad.

Until one day the school fell down because of a tornado.

And because of that the students turned into little tornadoes.

Until they got stuck in a tree

Then they had to jump down and the sky fell on top of them.  And because of that they decided to listen to their teacher and only draw on paper

And then they had a party, did the peanut butter jelly dance, and had cake!

Chad is a first year Teaching Artist for TAP and is finishing the school year at Widen Elementary in Austin.

I wish…. for more classes like this!

by Chad Dike, Teaching Artist at Widen Elementary School

As we entered the classroom we knew something was wrong.  We had been expecting a birthday party for our friend Horace, the elephant, his 12th to be exact. And what we found was a disaster. The chocolate mousse was merely a smear in the bottom of the bowl, the cheese sandwiches were missing the cheese, and the cookies were only crumbs on a plate. Someone had stolen the feast! But who?  It was up to us, a rag-tag group of 2nd graders to solve the mystery.  Was it Oliver the Pig? (clearly pigs eat a lot) Maybe Eric the Zebra? Or could it be , Kilroy the Mouse? The class set to work, dusting for finger prints and looking for clues.  The first was a note in code, left by the thief. The code could only be broken if you used the thief’s name. But how do we figure that out?!?! An especially sly detective noticed that the cheese was missing. Another detective discovered that the word ‘mousse,’ which was missing from their feast, looked a lot like ‘mouse.’ And then the mouse tracks on the back of the note told us the answer. KILROY!

 

This was my class last Thursday. The students became detectives to solve a crime and used cameras, magnifying glasses, and even some finger prints to find clues. I had a blast, the students had fun, and we used the 4 C’s to do it–critical thinking was imperative to solve the mystery, courageous allies worked together, creative artists went into role as detectives and a few confident leaders stepped up to the plate and took initiative.

 

When tasked with writing the last blog of the semester I felt the need to go back and look at my first blog post “I can’t believe I get paid to do this.”  After four months and over 100 lesson plans, that sentiment still holds true. My wish is for another semester full of creativity, discovery and fun!

Thank You Craft Projects!

by Chad Dike, Teaching Artist, Widen Elementary

I have taught a lot of 2nd graders in my tenure as a teaching artist, but I have never met a crew like my group from Widen.  (Remember the off the wall but fun kids I talked about last time?)

Thanks to the brilliant help of Natalie Goodnow, Artistic Associate at Theatre Action Project, and an extended craft project, they have finally found their focus!  Now I must admit, I have never been a huge “craft-er.” I can make some awesome paper plate hats or a treasure map, but nothing as extensive as a plaster and paint mask with young students till now.

What started as an “easy” mask making project, has now blossomed into a  mask/map/backdrop/model town extravaganza! The students have poured a ton of work into these masks and have begun creating a world around the characters.  This is even spilling over into the class culture, with the creation of “town jobs” (mayor, librarian, coach and teacher) with a corresponding duty in the classroom.

Suffice to say… Thank you craft projects!  You are almost always messy and take longer than expected, but you give my students the ability to creatively express themselves in a new and interesting way!

The top 3 reasons I love working with Pre-Kindergarten

by Chad Dike, Teaching Artist, Widen Elementary

I have been working with my pre-kindergartners for about 6 weeks now.  I’ll admit that there have been a few challenges, but who doesn’t deal with challenges; but mostly this is an amazing group to work and have fun with.  When I tell , I work with this age group, they usually look at me like I am crazy and ask, ”Why would anyone want to work with 4 and 5 year olds?”