Imagination Express comes to Borah
The Imagination Express, a program designed to integrate art, music and physical education, came rolling into the Borah Elementary School gymnasium on Wednesday. This creative program started at Borah in 1997 with the help of an EXCEL Foundation grant.
Former Borah music teacher Jean TerHark, physical education teacher Marla Nixon and art teacher Jane Morgan started the program. Liz Larson, the new music teacher, took over for TerHark.
They start out by sharing a story or theme with the kids. The first one was the story of Sinbad. On a world map Morgan showed the students where the action took place before introducing the painting “Sinbad the Sailor” by Paul Klee. She explained to the attentive second- and third-graders that Klee was interested in shape and color theory.
Larson then introduced the first movement of “Scheherazade,” by Rimsky-Korsakov, which is based on the tales of the 1,001 Arabian Nights. While the music filled the room, the students used their imagination to cross the ocean as Sinbad did, without touching the water, using hula hoops, rope and cardboard boxes.
Second-grader Elle Siroshton imagined that her hula hoop was a raft and made her way across the ocean while her team followed. Teamwork was the skill the teachers were emphasizing in the physical part of the program.
The next segment focused on outer space. Morgan shared a surrealistic painting called “The Rock Palace” by Yves Tanguy. She pointed out that it was created before there even was a space program. “Retroactive I” came from pop artist Robert Rauschenberg and was a collage of space-related images. Morgan had the pleasure of meeting Rauschenberg at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and told the students he was still alive, unlike so many of the artists they discuss.
The music “Also Sprach Zarathustra” by Richard Strauss, better known to most as “2001: A Space Odyssey,” filled the room, followed by a 1960s jazz piece called “Gateway to the Galaxy” by Jane Ira Bloom.
Two long rolls of butcher paper were rolled out on the floor, and the students were instructed to find their own personal space on the paper and then listen again to the “Space Odyssey” music. Their mission was to create pathways inspired by the music with a crayon. There were many interesting perspectives. Third-grader Nathaniel Schnebly was drawing the crescendos quite accurately. Larson said he was very musical.
The Imagination Express is held once each semester at Borah. All the students in the school participate at different times. The three teachers involved said the students always look forward to it.
Skyway bake sale
Skyway Elementary School second-graders held a bake sale Tuesday and Wednesday during the lunch hour and were successful in raising more than $500, which will be donated to benefit local police officer Mike Kralicek, who was wounded in the line of duty. The second-graders delivered the funds to police officers in an assembly Thursday. Parent Tami Wabbs organized the fund-raiser.
CHS all-class reunion
Coeur d’Alene High School is planning an all-class reunion for the weekend of July 29-31.
Alumni will be celebrating 100 years of CHS with planned activities that include a fun run, school tour, homecoming parade and a dinner and dance with music by The Fabulous Shadows and the Rhythm Dawgs.
For information on the event visit www.cdaschools.org/chs. If you wish to be involved with a sponsorship, committee work or just be in touch, contact the organizers by e-mailing 100years@sd271.k12.id.us.