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WEST FARMINGTON – Students traded in the walls of the classroom today, for expanses of evergreen, marked with dabbles of red, orange, yellow, set against distant, purple hills.
The students took to Titcomb Ski Mountain, a local ski hill in West Farmington, for a half-day of art, music and hiking, in an annual tradition at Cascade Brook School.
“It’s getting kids outside, in their sense of place,” art teacher Deede Krantz said.
Krantz, who helped develop the course curriculum which includes the Titcomb experience, teaches at Cascade Brook School and Academy Hill School in Wilton. Her AHS students go to Wilson Lake, while CBS fourth graders go to Titcomb.
The students split into two groups, with one hiking around the trails that wind around the ski hill, accompanied by a physical education teacher and members of the guidance department. The other group climbs up the wide trail known as the “Main,” and sketches the landscape, accompanied by music. Music teacher Mark Phillips provided guitar music for the morning shift, while the school’s orchestra instructor Nancy Beacham plays her violin in the afternoon.
The sessions start in silence, with the music blending in as the sketches take shape. The students, Krantz said, will use them later to create paintings, collages and haiku. They also take photographs, with the entire experience designed to accompany the Maine Studies program, a focus of the fourth grade education.
The program, which is in its fifth year, was developed by Krantz and another teacher, who based their curriculum on a 1895 painting titled, Mount Katahdin from Millinocket Camp, by Frederic Church. The painting, on display at the Portland Museum of Art, can be seen here.
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WHAT A GREAT THING YOU ARE DOING FOR THESE KIDS, I WISH EVERYDAY CLASSES COULD BE MORE LIKE THIS AND GEARED AWAY FROM ” THE BOX.”
What a treat!
Simply Awesome !!
TRUE ART!
Thank you to the teachers that developed the program and the administrators that approved it. It was one of the highlights for my children at cbs. The photos are beautiful and I am glad that all of the children get to go there and see the amazing view in their own backyard. I grew up near a ski mountain but never went to it as we could not afford to ski.
Wow! A field trip, art and music-all in the same day! I’m sure that doesn’t happen much in our local public schools!
I wish I was one of those students! What a great idea. Those teachers should be applauded.
Wonderful activity brought to life for the reader by magnificent photos. Reminds me of the way we taught in Hollywood, Maryland. We were outside a half day a week or more, doing real science and math as well as literature and the arts. “Right On!” teachers and administrators who allow this to happen. Students should appreciate and learn in real situations.