🎨 At Leicester Elementary School, creativity isn’t confined to crayons and songbooks; it’s a full-on journey into imagination, history, and discovery.
Last week, Second and third grade art and music classes held an art assembly centered around change (second grade) and why humans study the sea (third grade). The presentations included sea shanties, stop motion animation, shadow puppets, and more. This interdisciplinary project let students turn their curriculum into performance art that they could share with their classmates and families.
Art teacher E. Lissa Pedersen guided third graders as they explored the unknown through shadow puppets- dreaming up mythical deep-sea creatures and experimenting with light, movement, and collaboration. Second graders rode their own creative tide. They dove into stop-motion animation, learning the fundamentals of photography and storytelling.
“They get to play with the concepts,” Pedersen said. “They might not even realize they’re learning because they’re so engaged. It’s about divergent thinking. We start with a question and see where it takes us.”
In music class, teacher Jared Hooker helped students tackle traditional sea shanties, introducing them not only to rhythm and melody, but to historical language and maritime culture.
“We talked about how sailors sang to pass time and stay in sync while working,” Hooker explained. “And we dug into some of the old words, like ‘bully boy,’ which led to a discussion about salted meat and sailor slang.”
Hooker emphasized the long-term value of these projects.
“They’re learning how to practice a skill, how to persevere,” he said. “It’s not just about performing; it’s about the process.”
Through it all, students get to create meaning, build confidence, and see themselves as part of a long human tradition of art-making and expression.