On Thursday June 6th Wheelock School was humming with creativity for the fourth annual Wheelock Night of the Arts. This year's Arts Night theme was 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Stories by Eric Carle' in celebration of the fiftieth birthday of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the 90th birthday of Mr. Carle. In keeping with the Eric Carle theme, the school hallways were decorated with nature-inspired batik prints and art collages inspired by images in Mr. Carle's books, all created by Wheelock students under the guidance of art teacher Ms. Tracey Babin. | Performance 1: The classes of Sheehan, Watson, Kuehl |
Wheelock students’ art work was proudly and beautifully displayed in the gym along with interactive art activities designed to engage visitors to the art gallery in some community art-making. Student engagement and autonomy is a key element to the success of the Night of the Arts and students are involved in the artistic process from the very beginning. | Performance 2: The classes of Lynn, Parker, Hevey |
The process started months ago as students considered questions such as “what do you think a firefly sounds like? How might we represent that in sound? What do you think a caterpillar sounds like when it's eating? Can we create some rhythm patterns to represent the munching of a caterpillar using different timbres?" The production is built on student ideas by layering them one on top of the other, with lots of student choices about how to organize the music in an expressive and artistic way. | Performance 3: The classes of Newton, Callahan, Trikoulis |