Today was a musical day. Arriving at BRAMAS this morning, Maria Tereza and I met with Antonio, Adriana, and Arlete to set up for the day. We had twenty kids today. Taking advantage of the summer, and the adjacent park, we took ourselves outside to experience the sun and a few activities to initiate us onto our day. We walked when we were told to stop, and stopped when we were told to walk, shouted our age when we were told to jump, and jumped when we were asked how old we were! The morning was fun, joyously confusing, free-ing, and filled with movement. A great start with lots of energy and laughs.
Antonio had an amazing lesson planned for the kids, discovering and associating through music. Adriana also had a terrific lesson in photography to teach the kids about composition, and discovering interpretation through the lens.
With his group of ten, Antonio led the children to discover music through paper. PAPER! It could not have been a more fitting opportunity. A Piece for Paper, was a piece of music made especially to play a piece of paper, --through sliding, tapping, clapping and rustling paper, the children created an orchestra. Antonio discussed ideas of 'form' with the children, and directly related these notions to discovering the form of All Summer In A Day -- by comparing the components of each. It was truly amazing to see such a talented teacher give such a comprehensive lesson, and make all the pieces fit so wonderfully.
Just the same, Adriana took the other ten children (and then the groups swapped) to learn about basic concepts in photography/composition; the rule of thirds, the pitfalls of centered images, and what constitutes a working photograph-- with movement and space; showing the children a variety of images and letting them chose which worked well, and which did not work so well --and why. After the slide show, the group of ten split into groups of five; one group doing body sculptures, or metaphoric adaptations from the story -- and the other photographing them. Lunch came just as the second group was finishing up, so tomorrow we are lucky to have Adriana return to look at the images the children created, with them -- and to talk about what they were able to produce. This was an amazingly well-organized lesson that seemed to cover a tremendous amount in an agreeable amount of time. Another amazing teacher.
Kudos to both Antonio and Adriana!
After lunch, we wrapped up the day and were treated to bit of Jobim, when Antonio took his guitar out, and helped students (and er, some teachers..) learn how to sing it! It was a wonderful way to end the day. ~ Maria
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