ART nights - What can Art do for you?

Last fall, we got a generous grant from the Alaska Association of School Boards to create a project that lets adults and kids connect through the arts. So, we started Art and Recreation Nights (ART Nights) at the JEC and it's been a rousing success. The idea is to make materials and projects available for kids and their families to do together and to encourage parent involvement in our school.

At first, only a few families participated, mainly because of the time we picked (once a month, on Tuesday, from 4:30 to 5:30). We also asked parents to accompany their kids to ART area, which meant many people would skip it altogether since it was the end of the day.

About three sessions in, we changed it up: Kids went together with their teachers to the ART area at 5:00, started a project with our school-age kids, then finished up when their parents arrived. It worked beautifully; parents would stay with their kids and do a project, or at least talk to their child about what they had done before the parent arrived.

What we've noticed over the past few months of doing ART Night regularly is that parents are coming around more - they're volunteering at events, helping out in the classroom and generally showing that they feel more comfortable at the JEC. Which is what we absolutely wanted all along.

At our annual fundraiser, we had unprecedented parent participation - they manned tables, sold raffle tickets, kept things tidy, and served concessions. For our upcoming silent auction, parents are gathering up donations at lightning speed.

The best was two weeks ago, when we celebrated Purim. We had close to 99% parent attendance at the party. There were people EVERYWHERE. The school-age kids made carnival games, did crazy hair and face painting and served cookies to everyone. The younger kids guided their parents around the fair and even extended family attended.

The next ART Night is April 22 and we'll celebrate Earth Day together. There will be greenie projects and fun games about recycling for everyone to do. Once the weather is warmer, we plan to do outside art projects, including an art obstacle course.

I hope next year we can enlist the parents as project leaders - having them sign up to host an ART night for the school. Then the project's goal will be full circle - art bringing kids and adults together in positive ways.

Love,

Miss Tara (Miss Leah is on vacation in California - whatever!)