Flight of the Monarchs

During their most recent group, Bhutanese children reviewed what they learned about monarch butterflies migrating from the U.S. to Mexico in late October.  Children worked in pairs to choreograph their interpretation of what the life cycle  of a butterfly and it's migration looks like.  Each pair performed their dance for the group using fabric to mimic wings and capes.  As children performed, the artists pointed out the scientific terms like transformation, caterpillar, cocoon and chrysalis in order to strengthen the group's vocabulary and academic skills.  The group then transitioned into their visual arts activity of creating mud sculptures.  The week prior, children created leaf drawings.  Christine, the visual art therapist, described how mud sculptures when they are dry are slightly more permanent than the leaf drawings, but also will not last forever.  Using these art activities as a metaphor, children were able to reflect on the things in their own lives that were permanent and impermanent.  Christine, Mr. Robert and Julia have consistently incorporated both movement and visual arts into all of the groups because the children respond so well to both. There are attributes and specific values to each art medium, all of which play an important role in helping children externalize the internal without the use of words as they continue to acclimate into U.S. culture.

Two newly arrived refugee children joined this group totaling 11 children in attendance on December 1st. The group taught them the songs, dances and rituals of the BuildaBridge Classroom, welcoming them into the space as if they had been there all along.  A celebration of this first term will occur December 15th and groups will re-start in mid-January.