 Litchfield Bancorp's fifth annual Art of Discovery program provided a month-long series of multi-cultural activities for fourth-graders at East School and Torringford School, both in Torrington. Activities were held in March and April and were designed to give students a chance to discover hidden talents and interests and the means to continue pursuing them after the school year ends.
Litchfield Bancorp provides funding for an artist-in-residence program that allows schools to bring in teaching artists to work with students during Art of Discovery, which was created in 2004 and has been held at schools in Torrington, Litchfield and Oakville.
Art of Discovery is not only a valuable learning opportunity, it's also a lot of fun with artists like puppeteer Larry Engler and singer-songwriter Les Julian visiting the schools. Julian got the program going with his performance on March 19. Perched on a stool with his guitar, Julian sang a host of songs about storytelling, diversity and the theme of this year's Art of Discovery, world culture. Students were involved in each song, singing, clapping their hands and bobbing their heads at Julian's direction.
Engler, of Poko Puppets, followed with a four-week workshop on the intricacies of constructing and working puppetry. Students learned how to use their wrists, arms and voices to bring their puppets to life and give them personalities. At the end of the workshop, they held a puppet parade for their families and friends.
Making puppets was just one part of the workshop. The other involved students incorporating their puppets into the world culture curriculum to create a different style of learning.
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Another highlight of Art of Discovery was its T-shirt contest, which was won by Jimmy Lamanna of East School. Lamanna's design was printed on T-shirts that were given to all fourth-graders. Runner-ups Lexi Rayno of Torringford School and Joseph Gainley of East School received prizes for their designs.
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