Written by Kazimir Klein
The Center for Arts-Inspired Learning (CAL) created the CAL Sprouts, which is their newest pre-school multi-arts program. The CAL Sprouts programming was “created to connect learning through the arts to kindergarten readiness skills with a series of lessons and assessments that target the Ohio Department of Education’s preschool assessment outcomes. Current artistic genres available include Dancing Sprouts, Musical Sprouts, and Digital Sprouts.” (https://arts-inspiredlearning.org/programs/calsprouts/)
This summer GroundWorks was able to participate in helping to facilitate the Dancing Sprouts component of CAL Sprouts. For eight weeks our Education and Community Engagement Director, Rebecca Burcher, was able to go to eight different schools within the Cleveland Municipal School District (CMSD). These eight schools included Clark, William Rainey Harper, Harvey Rice, Marion C Seltzer, Garfield Elementary, Albert Bushnell Hart, Robinson G Jones, and Hannah Gibbons-Nottingham. For five days a week, GroundWorks was able to teach three forty-five-minute classes between 1:00-3:30, which included two Kindergarten and one Pre-Kindergarten class each day.
Approaching the programming of CAL Sprouts, GroundWorks understood what is missing in a majority of early childhood education is the incorporation of movement and engagement. With the use of movement, we have found it successful in not only having children moving within the classroom but keeping children engaged and accomplishing state requirements. A teacher of twenty-nine years within the CMSD spoke upon this, “we talked about this with my fellow teachers that what is missing from the student’s education is this engagement and activities like this … we have been drowned down by academics (testing, etc) for many years … I was a Kindergarten teacher for 21 years, seeing the academics being shoved down their throats and testing has buried these types of activities underneath the ground … to see it surfacing up now is still very meaningful for our children today”.
Within each class, GroundWorks would begin by leading the groups of students through a check-in with each individual child. Proceeding to take them through a series of movement-based activities that would range from being based on different themes, such as emotions, hand-eye coordination, colors, and musicality. After these activities, GroundWorks would guide the children through a meditation at the end of class. Each class was able to adapt to what the students needed within the structure of the class and instruction of Burcher.
Through Dancing Sprouts, the curriculum created has been able to address the decrease of movement and engagement from students within the classroom, while still helping children progress within their educational milestones. A teacher within the CMSD states “the SEL (social-emotional learning) curve in the curriculum has come through in full force since these programs have been here for our early childhood … since the programs have been in the schools I have seen major differences and this has been keeping children coming in”. Another teacher of twenty-two years spoke upon how these programs are able to help children grow within their schooling, “there is a lot between the music, art, and dance there is always growth above and beyond … the students and the teachers are enjoying it”.
GroundWorks being a part of the CAL Sprouts Programming has allowed us to practice our mission of making movement possible for all and helping to enliven our surrounding communities by using our main facilitator of movement. We are so thankful for the relationships we have built over these past eight weeks and for CAL Sprouts allowing us to be a part of their Dancing Sprouts programming.