Blake Students Show A Knack For Songwriting, Mask Making

By the end of the class, the fourth-graders had become recording artists.

The thought of their song, “Panda Fun,” hitting the charts was exciting, and they grinned at each other proudly.

Composing, singing and recording the song was the culmination of the class’s 90-minute session with Ron and Marsha Feller, singers, songwriters and artisans who’ve traveled the country for the past 23 years, entertaining and teaching children.

This week, the Fellers, who live at Spokane’s Morning Star Boys Ranch when they’re not traveling, were at Blake Elementary in the Spokane Valley.

The Fellers also are the authors of two books on mask- and craft-making. The Fellers began each class at Blake with a mask-making demonstration in front of a black backdrop decorated with ornate and elaborate hand-made masks. There was a lion with a creamy curling mane and a shiny golden crown, a multi-colored elephant with shimmering tusks and a looping trunk, and a cartoon panda with a purple hat perched atop its head.

“Can I buy that sun?” asked fourth grader Beau McLean, pointing to a sun mask with curving gold rays and a red and orange face.

“Why don’t you make one?” Ron Feller responded.

The children went at their task of making panda masks with zeal.

“Mine’s going to be a boy, and it’s going to have a bow tie,” said Jessica.

Ryan made one with wide blue eyes, a protruding red tongue and a purple hat with a white brim. John’s panda had a green twig sticking out of its mouth. Kelsie’s was crying.

“Notice how Michael’s is taking on a personality,” Ron Feller said to the class. “That’s because of the eyes.”

The children chose from stacks of colored construction paper to make their masks. The eyes were layered, first black, to get that distinctive panda look, then white, then a color of the children’s choice, then black, for the pupils.

After making the masks, the children sat down with Ron and Marsha to compose a song about pandas while Ron accompanied them on an auto harp.

It went like this:

“Pandas doing cartwheels, flips in the air, jumping on trampolines…” They were stuck. They needed a line ending with a word that rhymed with “air.”

“Everywhere,” yelled Lia.

“Thanks, Lia,” said Ron Feller. “You got us out of a hole.”

Everything the children suggested was called a “great idea” and incorporated into the song, somehow. It had four verses, a musical introduction and ending.

When the song was complete and had been recorded, Marsha Feller wrote a copyright symbol next to its title on the blackboard.

“What does that mean?” Ron Feller asked. “If someone wants to use it, they have to pay for it.”

“Ooooh,” said the children.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo