A school dedicated to children, families, learning & building community
Francine Delany New School for Children Arts
In Movement with Giles students are creating a choreographed path that highlights the element of line. Students will utilize different types of lines in their pieces. For example curved lines, zig zags, spirals, straight, and wavy just to name a few.
Students had fun showing their interesting pathways.
Thanks Giles and Anomaly!
Nature of Singing w/Melody
In this elective class you will have the opportunity to explore your voice through the lens of nature. Have you ever noticed the sounds you hear in nature? Our environment is a very influential place and it inspires great music. Come and learn musical concepts, vocal strengthening, and to sing songs with recording artist M.C. Melody in her Nature of Singing class!
Contemporary Dance, Hip Hop, and Street Dance w/Melissa W.
In this class we will investigate Contemporary Dance (“So You Think You Can Dance), Hip Hop, and Street Dance and their relationship to social justice. This will allow for individual creativity, self-exploration and expression. The class will follow the format of open professional dance classes offered in New York City. You will start with a warm up followed by phrase work (choreographed movement), and then have the opportunity to use choreographic composition tools to develop your own solo and/or group movement phrases with your fellow students that we will use to create a complete piece of choreography for performance reflecting and/or expressing ideas around a specific social justice issue.
Movement Games w/Miri
Come “Explore Movement” with Miri. In this elective you will learn about movement and your body through movement games and dance. You will also explore elements of yoga and breathing. You will experience awareness of your senses through objects that heighten your senses of hearing, seeing, smelling and seeing. Be sure to dress comfortably in this mind and body moving elective.
Drawing and Sketching w/ Jennie Wing
This class will offer you the opportunity to expand on your already discovered talent OR the opportunity to DISCOVER IT!! YES! You can Draw! We will practice sketching; still life, human form, abstract and/or fantasy drawing. These exercises will guide you in a better execution of perspective, shading,and all around drawing.
Basketball Elective-w/ Craig
Learn the rules and fundamentals of basketball. We will practice ball handling, passing and shooting, and defense strategies. We will run drills to improve these fundamentals and will always play a game. This class will improve your game, make you more basketball savvy and prepare you to take on more skilled players.
Iron Girls w/Ms. Amber, Ms. Anne and Ms. Becca
Calling All Girls! We want to help you develop your special strength, both inside and out! Iron Girls is a fun and exciting Crossfit Program just for you. You will be amazed at what you are truly capable of while having fun and getting fit with gymnastics, weightlifting and girl power. This program is open to all girls with or without any prior athletic experience. Join us to see what all the hype is about! @ Crossfit Asheville.
Slacklibrium w/Jesse and Patrick
In the Slack-Librium program students will become trained Slack-Librium Instructors, capable of safely rigging slacklines, slacklining at a beginner/intermediate level, and teaching others how to slackline safely and properly. You will receive your own “Instructor Skill Progression Guide” to help mark your progress as you learn new skills. Our program will help you to develop balance – not just physically, but mentally & emotionally as well. Each week of programming will incorporate mindfulness skills that will help to enhance your self-awareness, focus & concentration, and emotional regulation. These skills will translate directly into your ability to slackline, but will also be beneficial in other parts of your life.
Greetings All,
This year in Specials we will begin our first day of school with Music and Mr. Sean. We will have Music every Wednesday. Mr. Sean will teach musical concepts through singing, and fun rhythm and tempo games. He will also use technology to offer a visual glimpse of what is traditionally an aural experience in Music. 3-5th Students will also have the opportunity to play ukuleles, while all grades will have an opportunity to play orff instruments such as xylophone.
Then on Thursdays we will have Spanish with Mr. Chris. We will be following the Sonrisas curriculum. This curriculum offers a wide variety of ways to learn Spanish. We will do work sheets, art, sing songs, and role play Spanish learning scenarios.
Mondays we will have Art. Mr. Chris will teach Art utilizing the seven elements of Art: Color, Shape, Line, Texture, Space, Value, and Form. As we go through year students create art pieces that highlight one of the main elements. As we work they learn art concepts such as composition, materials, process as well as understanding better techniques for using tools i.e. cutting with scissors, listening to and following instruction, and other positive work habits.
Tuesdays 3-5th students will have Movement with Giles, while K-2 students will have our newest Specialist teacher Melissa Wilhoit. They will be teaching students concepts of dance and body expression. They will utilize games and collaborative team projects to teach students about concepts utilized in dance and movement. They will gradually be working towards the Spring Performance which will occur near end of the school year.
Just to recap this is what the Specialists will look like from week to week:
Greetings Everyone,
I hope you are all enjoying your summer. I am reaching out to invite you to participate in Francine Delany’s Friday Electives Programming. Every year as some of you know we offer Electives Courses to our 6th-8th Graders. Our school is open to offering different courses and experiences to our students that go beyond the traditional academic courses of Math, History, Science, Literature and the like. Our students have expressed interest in all sorts of courses. Courses such as computer programming/animation, digital photography, podcasts, digital music creation, Spanish, film-making, dance, journalism, creative writing, drama/improv, yoga, mindfulness, finance, many forms of visual art including painting, ceramics, pattern drawing, mural painting, and 3D design. They have also expressed interest in sports such as soccer, basketball, volleyball and flag football. Please feel free to offer ideas for classes that may seem out of the ordinary after all we’ve had courses like “Near Space Balloon Project,” STEAM (Science,Technology,Engineering, Art,Math) “Aca-Storytelling”, “Music History”, and “Slacklibrium-Mindfulness through Slack-lining.”
For those of you who are new to the Francine Delany Electives Program, my name is Chris Corral and I am the Arts Coordinator at Francine Delany New School for Children. Every year I reach out to the community looking for teachers to teach in the Francine Delany Electives Program for our middle school students (6-8th Graders).
This year we will be setting up our Middle School Electives program as far as we can through the year. We’d like to offer a wide variety of Elective classes for our 6-8th Grade Middle school students. Our Electives program classes occur most Fridays. Classes are limited to a minimum of 8 students maximum 16. There are three sessions which have 10 Fridays each. Each Friday of Electives has three time slot options.
Time Slot Options look like this:
First Hour Elective Class -12:15-1:15
Second Hour Elective Class -1:20-2:20
2 Hour Elective -12:15-2:20.
This year we are only allowing a class to be offered a maximum of 2 times in the school year to help ensure a variety of classes for students to choose from. Sessions 2 and 3 dates are subject to change due to Middle school field trips that have not yet been scheduled. Slots will fill up quickly.
These are the Session Dates:
Session 1: Sept. 1,8,15,22, 29, Oct. 13, 20, 27 ,Nov. 3,17(Electives Fair)
Session 2: Dec. 1,8,15, Jan.5,12,19, 26, Feb. 2,9,16 (Electives Fair)
Session 3: Feb. 23, Mar. 2, 9, 16, 23, Apr. 13, 20, May 4, 11, 18 (Electives Fair)
Please email me at chris@fdnsc.net to reply what class, and which Sessions and times you could be available to teach as well as a 3-5 sentence description of your course. Thanks for your time. Volunteer teachers will be given preference but we do have a limited budget for highly specialized classes. If you have any questions or know someone who might be interested in teaching, please share this information with them or give them my contact info. Being an Elective Teacher is good experience for young teaching professionals and looks great on any resume.
Best Regards,
Chris Corral
Arts Coordinator
Francine Delany New School for Children
The Spring Performance was so peaceful and beautiful. The students created a beautiful program with the theme of “Pets.” Susan and Giles of Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater helped them create and develop all the choreography and stories that were performed.
The student art was also a correlated with the theme of pets. The set designs were based on the designs of totem poles created by the First Nations people of the Northwest. We discussed what totem or power animals were and what animals the students felt connection to. They created beautiful images based on the Native American totem poles and animals.
Thanks to all the teachers and staff of Francine Delany who support these students with their kind, understanding hearts. A special thanks to Susan and Giles of the ACDT. Their connection with Francine Delany is strong and helps perpetuate an inspired and inspiring community always. Thank you Susan who will be taking a step away from teaching to focus more on the Asheville Contemporary Dance Theater but will still always be a supportive force.
In Art we watched a video that tells about the First Nations of the Northwest and their totem poles. We learned that totem poles are created to keep records of families as well as telling stories. We also dicussed totem animals also known as power animals. These animals are animals someone feels connected to in some spiritual way for a variety reasons. Students discussed what animals they felt connected to and designed their own totem animals. We will be using these in connection to our Spring Performance this year which has a “Pets” theme. Our totem animals will become totem poles to decorate our stage for the performance. Giles and Susan have working with our students to come up with the story and choreography for he Spring Performance. I can’t wait to see the program. Great creating students!
In Greenworks we measured a Northern red oak at its trunk and plugged in this number to tree benefits.com and found out that it’s worth $150 per year in annual benefits and will conserve 250 kilowatt hours of energy. It will also reduce 431 lbs of carbon per year just to name a few of the “tree benefits.”
SPOKEN WORD AND POETRY(pictured above)
In the Elective Fair the Spoken Word and Poetry class had an amazing presentation. They shared some great poetry and told everyone about some the poetry and spoken word concepts that they learned about.
COMPOSITION ART
The Composition Art Elective with Jennie Wing had some beautiful creations on display. They learned specifically about the concept of composition which is the placement of the subject matter in a piece of art. In this class it was specifically about how the mixed media and found objects are placed in a diorama and or sculpture to create visual interest. Strong composition is a key component to the formula for creating great and visually interesting art.
STEAM
In the STEAM Elective with Ashley the students created a Rube Goldberg Machine. In case you don’t know a Rube Golgberg machine is a contraption, invention, device, or apparatus that uses a chain reaction to accomplish a very simple task in a complicated manner. In this machine the students used a series simple machines (i.e. Pulleys, ramps, wedges, wheel and axle,etc) to pop a balloon. It took a couple tries but it was an effective ballon popper. Students learned many STEAM concepts to create this masterpiece of engineering. Great job friends.
WILDERNESS SURVIVAL
The Wilderness Survival Elective with Coach Craig taught about the many different survival concepts. First and foremost” don’t panic.” Coach Craig also taught different types of knots as well as structures that can be built for shelter. Students learned many different survival hacks that could be used if the need ever arose.
PICTURE THAT DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHY
Picture that Digital Photraphy Elective had many great photos to share. Teacher Bruce had students looking for shots that covered a wide range of topics. Some of the topics were pictures of sky, animals, minimal info and a few others. We got to see many beautiful photos.
MODERN DANCE 5th and 6th GRADE
In the Modern Dance Elective Melissa the dance instructor created some original choreography. Melissa gave each group of students a great deal of freedom to create. She does a great job of creating a fun and safe environment in which to allow students to express themselves. Her class facilitation allows for a beautifully choreographed piece of work that allows the students to take full ownership of their creation.
In the STEAM Elective Ashley and her students designed boats using foam core, Popsicle sticks, tape, string and plastic spoons. They tested them out to see which designs we’re most practical and could hold the most weight using golf balls. Exciting experiments! They discussed what designs had potential as well as their flaws. They also discussed materials and process. Critical thinking anyone? Great job STEAM Elective.
