Our 2nd grade musical was a smash-hit and our music teachers, Ms. Aycock and Mrs. Schafer knocked it out of the park with their exemplary directing and iMovie editing skills! Six classes of our talented remote and in-person 2nd graders acted and sang their hearts out while telling the tales of Aesop from our campus and via Zoom. From disco balls, custom props, iPad drawings, filters and costumes to remote actors with Zoom filters, this year's 2nd grade musical was a true masterpiece! 

4th graders in Mrs. Flood's class used Minecraft EDU on their iPads to create a collaborative world filled with original poems. Each student was given a plot of land to create a themed place to leave their poetry. The dog palace houses puppy poetry, the scuba shack has scuba poetry and the giant kid building doing a flip has poetry that is all about turning upside down! What a creative way to showcase poetry! Way to to write, create, and build, Mrs. Flood's class!

Our 5th graders, deep into study of poetry were treated to a virtual workshop by professional poets today! The folks from Austin's very own Typewriter Rodeo inspired our 5th grade in-person and remote students to let their imaginations wrangle up ideas straight from their heads and lay them down to paper without a mere hesitation. A lesson in the process of letting a mistake take you to the edge of your creative notions when composing poetry was a wonderful part of today's workshop with Sean and Jenna, impromptu poet extraordinaires. These talented folks, who compose spontaneous poetry on vintage typewriters, are regulars on KUT's Texas Standard and have been featured in Edible Austin, The Austin Chronicle and even as far as the beaches of Mexico!

Sean and Jenna talked about the process of creating spontaneous poetry and how to ask questions of their "customers" in order to compose a personalized poem that feeds the heart. A poem can be a wonderful gift of kindness. Students also learned a lot about the mechanics of old-fashioned typewriters. As 5th graders oohed and ahhed over machines that don't use electricity or batteries, they were invited to submit their own topics for a custom poem typed up by our presenters. From topics like a Lunchboxes, Unicorns, and Lizards and Football to a poem about Covid and Zoom, our students guffawed, snorted, and smiled whole-heartedly as they listened to Sean and Jenna present tales about their poetic adventures and revealed custom poems for our students. 

To top it off, our students tried their hand at creating spontaneous poetry using their iPads and a cool app called Hanx Writer! Way to bravely create the gift of words through poetry, Mustangs!