About our TASK party
About our TASK party
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In January of this year, the second grade students at Lyon School began to explore what they wanted to discover and share as the message of their spring show. From their ideas, we dug a little deeper and asked...
Why do we play?
Why do we have fun?
Why do we have friends?
How can we depend on each other?
Their answers to those questions described so many ways that we depend on each other by showing up. We found that they divided clearly into 4 themes. To depend on one another we can (1) Stay with them (2) Bring joy (3) Play and let the world drift off and (4) Count on each other.
We had big plans to discover other artists whose work also explored depending on each other, counting on each other, bringing joy, and playing. We had hoped this would help shape our work as second grade artists choosing songs, the set, movement, dramas, etc., for our show.
>enter: Pandemic<
>enter: Pandemic<
While under a Stay at Home Order and while eLearning became our classroom, we all learned how absolutely necessary their message to show up for each other really is! So with inspiration from artist Oliver Herring’s TASK Party, we found a way for every second grader to Show Up for one another and collaborate to create this year’s virtual spring show: SHOW UP! - celebrating how we depend on others by showing up.
First, the 2nd graders were invited to submit TASK ideas (connected to their themes and message). These Tasks could be anything they could imagine that might help someone play, be joyful, know they can count on their friends, and/or feel like they have company.
Once all the TASK ideas were collected, we sorted them and shared them back with the students.
(You can use the Random Task Generators to get one for yourself!)
We sent each student a postcard with one of the submitted TASKs to perform AND an additional TASK to color the other side of the card. Each individual postcard was part of a larger composite image (that was generated with student input about how to visually represent SHOW UP). After they colored it, they sent back a digital image of it, which has become our "set". You can see their set at the beginning of each video and in the header image on this site. There is a card representing every single second grader, every second grade teacher, and several other teachers from Lyon.
They also each submitted documentation of themselves completing their TASK to become part of their virtual TASK Party. We asked them to take the best video they could, using tips from our videographer/media experts and Artists in Residence from Big Foot Media, Tim and Nico. They edited all of the footage from 174 TASKS into the four videos you see on this site.
Through this interactive website, you will see and hear the message that we depend on each other by SHOWING UP. We can show up by bringing joy, playing and letting the world drift off, counting on each other, and staying with them. Enjoy this virtual TASK Party 2nd Grade “Show”!
BIG THANKS to the 2nd graders (for sharing their message in difficult times, with joy and care), to 2nd grade families (for their patience, guidance, videography skills), to Tim and Nico from Big Foot Media (for serving as artists-in-virtual-residence and helping us put this all together), to the PTA (for supporting our artist-in-residence program), to Nick Peronti (for writing the code for our random task generators) to all the Lyon staff members who supported this work (especially the 2nd grade teachers!!), and to all of YOU (for joining in the fun, and helping us share this message).
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