The Memory Project: Storytelling through visual arts, theater & puppetry

                                MEMORY POP-UP BOOK PROJECT for FAMILIES With PS22Q K-1 Wednesday May 26, 2021 Blog 5 Today was our last class and it’s hard to believe how quickly the time has flown. Spica and I have had a wonderful time teaching K-1 students from PSQ22 and want to thank Flushing Town Hall’s Gabrielle Hamilton, Director of Education & Public Programs and Sio Man Lam, Education & Public Programs Coordinator and Ms. Jeanne Powers, PS22 Queens Staff Developer for making the 5-week workshop possible. A big shout out to the two teachers who helped facilitate our class today, Ms. Maria Petitto and Ms. Rachel Melnick. We will miss our talented and enthusiastic students, Lucy, Stephanie and her two sisters Stella and Sarah, Sophie and her brother, Connor, Flora, Pinchu, Yunxi, Jamie, Gatik and Aaryan. Unfortunately, our other regular students, Martha and Nathaly, were not there...

  HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center VISUAL DIARY Project Blog 5 5/27/2021 Today’s class is all about hands - we use them all the time but how often do we closely observe them? We shared one handed gestures at the top of class, the sign for “ok”, “come here” and V for “victory”. The cross-cultural sign for money, rubbing fingers together was demonstrated and the Chinese gesture for the number 6. Fingers were used to call “come here” and to represent talking. Our students submitted excellent visual diary dialogues after last week’s class, which we screen shared. Jin Wei used figures representing a husband and wife. He continued to look at his iPad with his feet up, while she waited for him, fuming. Julisa documented her younger sons playing on a seesaw. One begs to be let down while the other demands he helps with the washing up first. Her second dialogue shows her frustration with her son who explains he’s not talking back, just communicating. Her third dialogue depicts the love between...

  PS154 Pop-Up Page Making Workshop 5/25/21 Spica and I want to thank Haihong Chen at Flushing Town Hall for facilitating our workshop with students and families from PS154Q and Mr. Mario Arciniega for supporting us as the parent representative. We had a very enthusiastic small group of students, who created some amazing artwork in the hour we spent together. Before beginning any art class, we believe it’s important to warm up our body and our imagination and as this is a class all about pop-ups, we began with a pop-up exercise in which we popped out our facial expressions and our bodies. After checking the students had all the required materials, we were ready to begin.  Using colored construction paper, students created a Base Page onto which they constructed their pop-up home. As they all lived in apartment buildings, they used a complimentary half page of colored construction paper and turning it vertically they drew their apartment building. Before doing so they marked ou...

Book of Home  Blog 5 5/25/2021 It was great to welcome Bo Fung to our class today for the first time. Equally gratifying was that Bobo caught on very quickly and made her Base Page and Pocket. Well done! Last week we asked our students to select the photo and story they wanted to feature in page two of their pop-up book. We warmed up by sharing these photos and expressing in our face and bodies the emotion evoked by the memory. Lily’s photo is of her at about 4 years old hand in hand with her father, taken at South Ferry. Her father regularly wore a suit and she told us he was often mistaken for the store’s manager when they went shopping. Situ and her husband went to Paris, France in 2016 for a summer vacation and her travel photo features Notre Dame Cathedral. Chi’s photo depicts her and a classmate during a visit to Michigan in 2018. They hadn’t seen each other for almost 60 years.    Bobo and her husband visited Washington, D.C. in the Spring and they were photographe...

                                             HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center VISUAL DIARY Project Blog 4 5/20/2021   As we will be learning about how to create dialogues using our figures, we warmed up with a complimentary gestures game. After Spica and I modeled the activity, Julisa started and blew a kiss, which was accepted by Jing Wei, then she scratched her head and Ru Ping responded with a gesture asking, “what happened?” Pun jumped in with a “she loves you” gesture to which So Sim accepted with a “thank you”. Lao Yu gestured a kiss to Sook Fong who gave her a hug and Hui Fen offered a handshake.    Always ready to accept any challenge and make it their own, we shared our students’ artwork in response to the Visual Diary theme: What You Care About. Susanna drew two pictures showing pressure families are facing during COVID restrictions...

  MEMORY POP-UP BOOK PROJECT for FAMILIES With PS22Q  Wednesday May 19, 2021 Blog 4 We were joined by Ms. Wen Chi and Ms. Naresa Edwards and thank them for their support and assistance. Our vocabulary for today’s class was “transform” We warmed up with a drama game in which each child took it in turns to transform an everyday object into something else. Gatik’s glue stick became an eraser, while Martha’s unicorn hair band became a marker. Sophie sniffed her lip balm like a flower, while Aaryan dabbed his eraser to the middle of his forehead as a bindi. Pinchu’s water bottle became a piggy bank, and Yunxi transformed her pencil into a hair tie. Jamie’s stop sign became a fan to cool himself down, while Lucy’s bag became a pair of eyeglasses. Flora transferred her flower pen into a comb, Stephanie’s glue stick became a pencil and Nathaly stretched her mask across her hair as a hairband.  As not all students brought an envelope to class, we showed them how to make one from ...

LMCC - Creative Learning Grant Book of Home  Blog 4 5/18/2021   In Hiping’s background the viewer’s eye is drawn to two small eyes, which look out at us. Diana chose bold colors while Chi balanced her images of trees and flowers and bushes. Alice chose a single magazine image to tear up and reconstruct. She found that there were some holes which she “plugged” with spurts of yellow and red color. Lily created a 3D effect with her background, while Yu Lan’s complimented the red and green of herself portrait’s headdress.  Students centered their background on the fold and glued it onto the V Fold stand in the back. Then they decided on the best placement for their self-portrait. After learning the terminology, background, foreground and layering, they chose splashes of color to create a foreground which enhanced their image and complimented the background. After choosing a color image from a magazine, they tore it into small shapes which they glued onto the front V Fold on t...

HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center VISUAL DIARY Project Blog 3 5/13/2021 As our class was all about drawing geometric shapes then fitting a figure into them, we warmed up by creating different shapes with our bodies. This was also a good stretching exercise. Next, we shared the outstanding drawings our students completed for homework. These were the exercise poses, depicting what they could do and what they wished they could do.   Sook Fong’s drawings reflected her early morning exercise routine with friends, which has been curtailed due to the COVID 19 pandemic. She still exercises but does it now at home. Stella hurt herself when she slipped on ice and now needs to hold on when she climbs stairs. She used perspective to depict the staircase. So Sim wishes she could do the splits but is satisfied with daily Tai Chi. RuPing’s drawings told the story of how she could once carry a heavy box to the post office, but now uses a cart for transportation. Pun told us she thought she was 35 when...

MEMORY POP-UP BOOK PROJECT for FAMILIES With PS22Q  Wednesday May 11, 2021 Blog 3 Mr. Joe McDonald, who teaches grade 6 and Ms. Thea Cusumano, who teaches some of our students, joined us today as our support classroom volunteers. Thank you to both of them. The theme for today’s lesson is “What’s behind the door? and What can I see through my window?” so we started with a game of hide and seek - virtual style! Gatik volunteered to be “in” and hide somewhere in his room. The rest of us turned our back to the camera and I counted to 20, to give him time to hide. When we turned back, Gatik's camera revealed his entire room but where was he? Students took it in turn to guess but no-one was able to find him - Gatik successfully hid beside the table. As an example of what the students would make in class, I screen shared my door and a window page. Students volunteered ideas of what they might see or would like to see outside their door and through their window. They suggested the realist...

  Book of Home  Blog 3 5/11/2021 On this bright sunny Spring day, we warmed up by sharing our morning exercise routines. Participants showed us how they massaged their faces, exercised with weights and focused on breathing while gently stretching. Diana dances in the park every morning. What a wonderful way to start your day!  Some participants sent us their headshot, so we shared them with the class. Chi cleverly changed her hairstyle after being inspired by a magazine image of shoulder length hair. Lily’s hair reflected the ocean, which she loves, while Alica and Hilping chose colorful patterned paper to collage their blouses. Once the headshot is complete a suitable background must be created which will be attached to the second hinge. Participants learnt how to cut white cardstock to size and then used their creativity to draw a pattern which reflected their personality. Next, they chose colorful images from magazines which complemented the colors in their headshot. E...

MEMORY POP-UP BOOK PROJECT for FAMILIES With PS22Q  Wednesday May 5, 2021 Blog 2   Spica and I want to thank the two volunteers who joined our class today to help with supervision and attendance taking, Ms. Jillian LaManno and Ms. Alisa McGinn. It’s great to have the extra set of eyes!  It was great to see our students again and to be joined by two more, Martha and Lucy. Welcome! We began by warming up our hands, rubbing them together then opening to show what we were holding. Spotlighted students then mimed using the object and we guessed what it was. After revising the vocabulary, we learned last week, pop-up book and self-portrait we were ready to begin making page 2 I want to hold…... Students folded their base page then chose another color for their hand and cut it in half. Most seemed to know just how to trace their hand adding details such as nail color, before cutting it out. They chose a smaller piece of paper in a contrasting color to make the swirl, the mechan...

HSC Bensonhurst Senior Center VISUAL DIARY Project Blog 2 5/06/2021 Karen initiated the warmup today with her own arm exercise routine which everyone followed. As each student then took it in turn to lead the class with their own routine, we learnt new exercises for our face, head, waist, legs, and hands. Our seniors are wonderful students who eagerly embrace homework, in fact they request it! We shared their Daily Activity drawings, completed after last weeks’ lesson in which they documented some everyday occurrences. So Sim drew her neighbor’s cat on the roof and a second drawing of relaxing while listening to music with a cup of tea and a snack. Susanna, who is unable to join our class due to her grandmotherly duties, always watches the video and completes the tasks. She drew a series of sketches showing her as a girl playing sports, such as badminton, bicycling, skiing and dancing. She told us that she was a very active child especially with four brothers. Her daily activity is sh...

Book of Home  Blog 2 5/04/2021   Our eager students began with a warmup incorporating a gesture which reflected how they were feeling. I began with a “carefree” Karen movement, followed by Spica demonstrating “passionate”. Alice’s gesture depicted her “good spirit”, and Sam Sam gestured “beautiful”. Chi greeted us with a “good morning” gesture while Hilping showed us she was “happy”. Lily dramatically gestured “growing” using her hands and arms, Yu Lan used both hands together in a swirling motion to gesture “thinking” and Winnie gestured “good”.    Using their headshot, participants learnt how to transfer an image using tracing paper. This is a useful technique which develops good observation skills and hand and eye coordination. We will also use it again for creating images for later pages. After carefully tracing their headshot, they outlined it in black sharpie then erased the pencil. We encouraged them to draw the major details and features of the face, but not ...

MEMORY POP-UP BOOK PROJECT for FAMILIES With PS22Q  Wednesday April 28, 2021 Blog 1 Pop-Up Books are fun for all ages, so when Sio Man Lam, Education & Public Programs Coordinator at Flushing Town Hall approached us to teach a series of activity-based workshops in which pop-up books are used as a medium for personal and family storytelling, we were excited. Unlike our usual participants, these classes would be for K-5 children attending PS22 in Queens, and their families. This project consists of 5 sessions in which the children will make a pop-up book about themselves and things around them.  Ms. Jeanne Powers, PS22 Queens Staff Developer organized the class rosters and contacted all the parents. We are very grateful she recruited the assistance of Ms. Colleen McGuire and Ms. Salma Din for our first class.  After introducing ourselves and learning the children’s names, we warmed up our bodies and imagination by popping out - our eyes, faces, hands and bodies. Spica e...