New Episodes and Activities Available Each Week
BALTIMORE, April 13, 2020 - Young Audiences of Maryland, the Baltimore-based nonprofit delivering arts-integrated learning to 190,000 students each year Maryland students, has launched two initiatives to bring engaging, arts-integrated classroom lessons directly into the homes of students while schools are closed. Arts & Learning Kids is a weekly series of video broadcasts where professional artists and teachers use the artist-media to teach a lesson. Arts & Learning Snacks is a series of at-home activities designed for students and their families.
Both Arts & Learning Kids and Arts & Learning Snacks were launched in Baltimore City last week and are now available to schools and school districts. Information about both are available by contacting Nel Andrews at Young Audiences, [email protected].
Arts & Learning Kids
The Arts & Learning Kids series will deliver new, 30-minute, multiple curriculum-aligned episodes each week that are tailored to three grade bands: pre-k/kindergarten, 1st-2nd grade, and 3rd-5th grade. Each episode will feature a Young Audiences teaching artist and an educator providing engaging and enjoyable lessons. For example, one episode shows songwriter Mary Fields working with teacher Kevin Older to write song lyrics that help them solve a word problem. In another episode, dancer Valerie Branch partners with educator Kristina Berdan to create choreography connected to the character traits of important civil rights leaders like Ruby Bridges.
Arts & Learning Kids videos will offer modified versions of the teaching artists’ classroom activities, tailored for students learning at home and incorporating activities that could include their families. While each episode is developed to relate to the Wit & Wisdom literacy curriculum and Eureka Math curriculum, they offer valuable lessons beyond that curricula.
Teaching artists are professional artists who work with classroom teachers and deliver hands-on, arts-infused learning experiences that support traditional academic content.
For an example of a video, focused on math, click here.
Arts & Learning Snacks
Arts & Learning Snacks are small kits of visual and performing arts activities created by teaching artists for students to complete at home without needing access to the internet. Included with a set of written and visual instructions, Arts & Learning Snacks provide flexible, hands-on learning experiences to students. For example, one Snack will guide students in creating a kinetic sculpture that talks. Another will support students as they manipulate clay pottery into a mini bowl.
Find the first two Snacks here.
“Ensuring that students are engaged, learning and connected during this period of school closures is critical,” said Stacie Sanders Evans, President and CEO of Young Audiences of Maryland. “Arts & Learning Kids will provide a consistent place for young people to visit -- particularly those that do not have access to the internet for online learning -- and to connect with dynamic artists and teachers. There they can explore literacy and math through a variety of art forms and be challenged to share their new knowledge with caregivers and parents who also need an opportunity to express and create.”
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About Young Audiences/Arts for Learning:
Started in Baltimore in 1950, Young Audiences is the nation’s largest arts-in-education provider. As the Maryland affiliate, Young Audiences/Arts for Learning (YA) is devoted to enriching the lives and education of Maryland’s youth through educational and culturally diverse arts programs. Through Young Audiences, professional artists from all disciplines partner with leaders and schools for nearly 10,000 hands-on arts learning experiences that reach more than 190,000 Maryland students. Young Audiences envisions a Maryland where the arts are valued for their capacity to transform lives, and where every student is immersed in opportunities to imagine, to create, and to realize their full potential.