Add to the Tree!

It’s April, 2022, and our Fun Friday improvisation session is almost over with the Casa Chirilagua kids. Wait, that’s “almost” over! What do you do when you have a few minutes left and the kids have soooo much energy to spare? You help them build a tree, of course! One kid is the tree, and what do you want to add to it? Then add on to that? And then…and then…. take a look how our improvisation teacher Keely Kirk gets their imagination going on a Friday afternoon!

 

More Fun Fridays at Casa Chirilagua!

What do you get when you mix our art teacher Sharmila with dozens of elementary school kids from Casa Chirilagua? Why, puppets and sculptures and imagination, oh my! So much to share here! Where to start? Let’s start with Alberto Giacometti, one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century whose work was particularly influenced by Cubism and Surrealism styles. Giacometti was best known for the bronze sculptures of tall, thin human figures, made between 1945 to 1960. Sharmila introduced him to the Casa Chirilagua kids, gave them some pipe cleaners (tall and thin, get it?) and off they went! We just had to share the octopus video, and we love how proud she was of her creation. And the earrings, of course. One must be properly accessorized.

Puppets were on the docket the second week! It’s amazing what kids can create with paper bags, crayons, glue, and a free imagination. Love the blue eyeshadow and eyelashes on the puppet below!

 

 

 

 

I Like to Sleep!

March 11, 2022 – The kiddies at Casa Chirilagua were a little sleepy yesterday during our “Fun Friday” time with them, so they wrote a song about sleep. Why not? Meet them where they are, right? They sung to the tune of “I like to Eat Apples and Bananas” and you have to admit, it doesn’t get much more adorable. Actually, only one of the three groups of kiddies was sleepy. The other kids learned “Shake the Papaya Down.” and sang “We Don’t Talk about Bruno” (aren’t we all singing that?) Our older kids also learned how to draw treble clef and bass clef. Shoutout to our highly professional and fast-thinking singing teacher, Bharati Soman, who knew just what to do with this sleepy little crowd!

Writing with Maisie

We’re always up for something new, and this time we took on creative writing for our “Fun Fridays” program with the kids at Casa Chirilagua. Our Solveig Eggerz took on the challenge of creating and sharing a story for 24 kids (grades 1-3 for 40 minutes, then grades 4-5 for 40 minutes). Ever the (many times published) writer, Solveig created “Maisie the Frog” based on the Grimms’ Fairy Tales “The Three Feathers.” The kids listened, discussed, acted, shared, and ultimately wrote about Maisie in their Heard notebooks. Not a bad way to spend a Friday afternoon!

“Wind”ing into 2022!

We promise that this is the worst (but sadly, probably not the last) bad pun. But we couldn’t help ourselves, since our art teacher Sharmila cleverly decided to have the Casa Chirilagua kiddies make windmills to encourage sustainable energy on our Fun Friday date. Using everyday materials like paper cups, glue, and popsicle sticks (and a glue gun, which no crafter should be without) the kids had a lot of fun putting these together. One little girl greeted Sharmila with, “I love when you come here! You always have new things for us to do!”