Catamount Arts

For early childhood educators

Sound: Thursday, July 23, 6-8pm

Light: Thursday, July 30, 6-8pm

Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium, Main Street, St. Johnsbury

Instructor: Rebecca Mack

*Both workshops are FREE, but advance registration is required*

Sound and Light are ephemeral materials, moving and changing just like young children! Like kids, these materials have incredible potential for scientific exploration and creative expression. And they’re all around us! In these workshops, teaching artist Rebecca Mack leads early childhood educators in reimagining ordinary objects and circumstances in the classroom for their creative potential as tools to manipulate sound and light. Both workshops understand sound and light as waveforms of energy. 

The Light Workshop on July 23 evaluates commonly available materials for transparency and opacity, imagining possible uses for creative expression. Classroom applications include projection, movement in light and dark, shadow play, tracing and light sculpture.

The Sound Workshop on July 30 introduces activators and resonators as basic components for understanding and creating with sound. Classroom applications include mindfulness, mapping, listening walks, music, and descriptive language.

Both workshops are supported by Rebecca’s illustrated book, A Handbook of Sound and Light. It is aimed at scientific understanding of these waveforms, along with applications in creative expression and the arts, and is in simple, general language. They will use examples from the book to spark thought, conversation and creativity. Educators will plan simple, elegant documentation of the children’s encounters with sound and light, ready to capture those poetic expressions of foundational concepts in science.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Describe opportunities for using sound and/or light in their classrooms to guide creative expression and scientific understanding in very young children.

2. Design rich encounters with sound and light using materials already available in the classroom.

3. Work with a peer to identify the TSG/VELS standards that fit their designed encounters.

4. Include the design of compelling documentation at the outset of the encounter.

FREE, but advance registration is required. You may register for one or both workshops. Those who attend will receive Documentation of Professional Development. Workshops are presented with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Arts Council.

Rebecca Mack is a musician and visual artist teaching, living and working in the Old North End neighborhood of Burlington, Vermont. A former preschool art teacher, they are the author of Handbook of Sound and Light, a creative companion for curious minds.