Huntington Elementary School

We recently completed a most rewarding project with Huntington Elementary School, made possible through partial funding through a CNY Arts Education Grant. The project consisted of LWB partnering with the Arts teacher, Music teacher, two fourth grade Social Study teachers and 32 fourth grade students at Huntington. LWB taught 16 fourth grade students a dance to a song called, "The Ballad of the Underground Railroad." This song was sung live by 16 other fourth graders. The song and dance became a portion of the professional production that LWB company and trainees performed for the whole school (two performances) called "Follow the North Star". The focus of this project was on the NY State historical account of Harriet Tubman and her involvement on the Underground Railroad. We included as a part of the set, a quilt made by the fourth grade Art class. We were able to encourage students through the life of Harriet Tubman, that they can make a difference where they are by making good choices today! They were wonderful listeners and seemed to be greatly impacted by their comments and feedback afterwards. We were able to build relationships with the students, as we spent a whole week teaching them the dance and having them perform with us. They truly embraced the opportunity and were wonderful to work with. We were amazed by the excellent feedback from the School Principal, Mrs. Joanne Harlow, who is leading her school wonderfully. She said the students were completely taken in by the production and expressed this with tears in her eyes. We are very grateful to CNY Arts for funding a portion of this project. It was our first time having students dance to live singing! A part of our hearts is truly connected to Huntington Elementary School! We are very grateful for the leadership and staff at Huntington as they labor to make a difference in the lives of their students.