Written by AFA Intern McKenna Dixon
December 3, 2022: Corlears School with Teaching Artist Elise Connolly
On Saturday, December 3, I began my morning in a magical winter wonderland with Teaching Artist Elise Connolly at Corlears School! The students were welcomed by paper snowpeople and snowflakes just waiting to be colored. They soon came to life as various patterns and shades filled their once-blank interiors.
As the students colored and chatted with each other about their favorite parts of the winter season, Elise brought everyone to their feet by cueing classic holiday tunes to begin a winter freeze dance! It was so joyful seeing all of the children laughing while singing along to their favorite songs, and then quickly snapping into funky poses almost synchronously with the music pausing. After this festive warm-up, the students were ready to learn choreography to “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” We practiced step by step, started off slowly, picked up the pace, and finally danced to the entire song all together—even the Radio City Rockettes would be impressed!
Photo by McKenna Dixon
After so much movement, it was time to take a breather and relax by sipping on cups of imaginary hot chocolate. The students, Elise, and I sat in a circle around a pretend campfire as we sang holiday songs and envisioned we were toasting marshmallows to garnish our hot cocoas.
Luckily, our hot chocolate break was just enough time to re-energize and prepare for snowball activities! Since it had not yet snowed in New York this season, we got creative, crafting snowballs out of tissue paper! Elise and I laid out long strips of white tissue paper, and the children rapidly crumpled and molded them into spheres. After the snowballs were divided evenly into two buckets, the students were all set for a lighthearted snowball fight. Of course, we reviewed safety rules first, and afterwards, they were eager to enjoy snow activities from the comfort of the warm indoors.
To cool down for the conclusion of class, we revisited our paper snowpeople and snowflakes and added the finishing touches. As we neared the end of class, I could not help but smile as I reflected on the wholesome, jubilant space cultivated by Elise and all the children. This day at Corlears consisted of such a well-rounded collection of activities to get everyone into the holiday spirit, and in such friendly company too.
