Published on May 18, 2022
This past Monday, May 18th, the John R. Bonfield Elementary School held their annual Day of the Arts program for all students K-6.
During this day, students cycled through 9 different stations to learn about the arts. To begin the day, students attended a large assembly to learn about Irish Dance from the Hooley School of Irish Dance. During this presentation, students saw performances from dancers as young as 4 years old! Students learned about both hard and soft tap styles, the history of Irish dance and even got to learn a few steps themselves – see here!
After the dance assembly, students were separated by grade-level to attend the other sessions. Sessions included: Cake Decorating, Screen Printing, Illustration, Sign Painting, ‘Thank You’ Card Making, Film Production, Vocal Instruction, and two Virtual Presentations (Ceramic Video and Ukulele Video).
Courtney’s Custom Cakes
During the Cake Decorating session, presented by Courtney’s Custom Cakes, students saw pictures from a number of cake orders Courtney has done. She also taught students how to frost both cupcakes and cakes, demonstrated how different shaped tips result in different decorations, and how different cake layers use thicker or thinner icing. To wrap up the session, she taught students an easy way to create beautiful fox, llama, and flower cupcake decoration. This session sure left our students feeling hungry!
Lancaster Print House
In the Screen Printing session, students learned how to screen print a t-shirt with instruction from the Lancaster Print House. First, students were instructed on the necessary tools (a t-shirt, a screened design, ink, and a squeegee). Then, students were shown the process of lining up the shirt, adding the ink, and drying the ink. Students also learned that while there are only 15 different colors of ink, when mixed, thousands of different colors and shades can be made. They also learned the difference between paint and ink is in the way that they dry (paint dries from over time, ink dries from heated air).
Children’s Book Illustrations
For the Illustrations lesson, our High School Art teacher, Mrs. Angie Hohenadel showed students the artwork she did for the children’s book, ‘Soar.’ Students began the session by ‘Gallery Walking’ to view her paintings up close. After they were done checking out the artwork, Mrs. Hohenadel read them the story and explained how her illustrations worked with the text.
Sign Painting
Next was Bethany Fisher’s Sign Painting session. Bethany shared with students how she began creating and selling her handwritten sign paintings at local businesses and markets. She sells at the Maker’s Market, makes signs for weddings (including her own!), created the signs at Shampooch Grooming, and designed the menu board at Zigs. She walked students through the process of making a sign (Prepare the surface, design the layout, paint, and finish the work). You can view the ‘Warwick Strong’ sign she painted in the Bonfield Office!
Dadley Productions
During the Film Production session, students learned about flipbooks, hidden Easter Eggs within film, and more. Bradley Hawkins, this session’s presenter, started his own film production company with his daughter. The name ‘Dadley’ comes from his daughter, who felt weird calling him ‘dad’ on set when everyone else called him ‘Bradley.’ In his session, he showed students three of his award-winning Indie Short Films.
Vocalist
In the vocal session, Bailey Fulginiti taught students what it means to be a singer. She demonstrated different kinds of music styles, and what you do as a teacher. One of the highlights of the session was when she sang opera for the students.
Virtual Presentations
Due to some unexpected last minute cancellations, two of the sessions were done virtually. In these sessions, students watched videos to learn about ceramics and ukuleles.
Thank You Cards
One really vital lesson of the day was the importance of thanking each of our guests! During one session time, each grade spent time making ‘thank you’ cards for each of our presenters.