Written by Spring 2025 AFA Intern Franny Daleo-Clark
February 14, 2025
On Friday, February 14, I got to shadow Nicole’s classes at the William Hallet School in Queens. We met in the morning to go over the lesson plans, and then joined fifth grade for a theater-based social-emotional learning session. First, we did an emotional check-in, and the students were encouraged to share a rose (something positive going on in their lives), a bud (something they’re looking forward to), or a thorn (something difficult/negative). Though it was my first time in the class, this is part of a routine they were familiar with and happy to share with me. Then, we formed a circle and started connecting with each other through a number game in which the goal is to count to 20, but no one can say the same number twice or at the same time, and students have to be in tune with each other to not overlap. They also reminded me that you can count in any language. It was quite tricky, and I think our high score today was 5! Today being Valentine’s Day and the last day before mid-winter recess, the group had a hard time focusing, but Nicole was good at adapting the day’s plan for the group.
Nicole had the students continue working on adapting a fairy tale in a new setting. They had previously chosen Little Red Riding Hood and voted for the story to take place in a bank. Today, they brainstormed people that you would find in a bank and assigned characters to each. Little Red was the teller, and the Wolf was a bank robber, for example. Next class, they will start adapting the story in this context.
To close and reconnect the group, we played a game called “Join Me If…” where we discover similarities in one another when one person stands in the front and says a statement, and those who find it true for themselves stand up as well. I discovered that like me, much of this class also likes purple! I’m looking forward to continuing working with this class and learning more about them in the future.
I also had the privilege of joining her first-grade class today. Nicole started with an emotional check-in and the students pointed to an expression on the board that they were feeling. Today, many were tired, silly, or happy! Next, they taught me their class’s Hello Song, a warmup greeting song they got to sing and dance to. Then, Nicole read a story called Stanley’s Stick by John Hegley, in which a boy called Stanley uses the power of his creativity to imagine a stick into many different things. The kids really liked the book and got to guess what the stick would turn into next! Afterward, we gave them each a pipe cleaner and they got to use their imagination to make it become anything they wanted. I demonstrated a flower, which turned into a snake, a hat, a tiara, and then a bracelet. Many were inspired to make plants and jewelry or even glasses. It was amazing to see what they came up with and then how they used their imagination to act out what they made collaboratively; the snakes teamed up to eat the flowers! They got to share what they made at the end of class if they wished, and I loved seeing how proud they were of their creations!
March 7, 2025
On Friday, March 7, I got to return to PS76 to help with two of Nicole Hogsett’s classes. The first class was an SEL-based theater art session with a lovely group of fifth graders. They started with their usual rose, bud, and thorn from the week. The kids had a lot they wanted to share. Nicole then led a discussion about respect, the meaning of the word “ensemble,” and how the group could best respect and support each other as part of a cohesive, theater ensemble. This set them up for success for the rest of the class. Nicole next led an activity called “Human Barometer,” in which we held up signs on either side of the room that said “respected” or “not respected,” read statements of different situations, and students would walk to the place in the room that identified how they would feel in each in a spectrum perceived respect. Students got to reflect on this activity afterward, and it seemed they learned a lot! We were running out of time for some of the other activities planned for this day, but I think students felt happy with the lesson and left in a state of peace with a better sense of how they could support each other.
In Nicole’s first-grade class, we warmed up with the routine Hello Song, which got everyone engaged and moving, and then Nicole invited the kids to share something about themselves that they wanted to celebrate or something they loved about themselves. This led us into the story for today’s lesson, Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae. We read this book out loud to the group, asking along the way about how the characters might be feeling and how they expressed that feeling. Then, we gave students a giraffe outline, a glue stick, and tissue paper and step-by-step led them in creating their own unique giraffe collage. My favorite part was how each student used the tissue paper in a different way. No one giraffe looked alike! It was a great way for kids to learn how to celebrate their differences.
March 21, 2025
I had the joy to visit PS76 again on Friday, March 21, after a week away while I was on my spring break. I helped with Nicole’s two classes again, and she said the kids had been asking after me, which made me excited. In her first group with the fifth grade, we followed their typical routine of an emotional check-in using the rose, bud, and thorn framework. Today, Nicole had the students continue working on their adaptation of Little Red Riding, which takes place in a bank. To brainstorm for the new setting, we split students into two teams to play Alphabet Relay, in which they tried to see how many bank-related words they could come up with based on each letter of the alphabet. Then, Nicole helped them apply these words to the story map they had previously made. Students then split into groups. Each group gets a scene to work on for their collective performance. For the closing activity, we played a game they learned last week called Red Ball/Yellow Ball. It was a fun and exciting end to the class.
After this class, I joined Nicole’s first-grade class again. In the warmup, we sang the routine Hello Song, which I am getting the hang of, and then did a quick emotional check-in to see how students were coming into class that day. Next, Nicole led them in a theatrical review of the book they read last week, Coqui in the City, through a game called Story Whoosh. The story is about a boy called Miguel, who moves from Puerto Rico to New York and keeps noticing things that remind him of home. Nicole invited the kids to share something that reminds them of home, and then we transitioned into artmaking. In the story, Miguel explores his new neighborhood and space, so Nicole had the group use crayons to create maps of their own neighborhood or home. This reminded me of the art I used to make as a kid, and I loved noticing the different ways kids chose to highlight and celebrate aspects of their home, neighborhood, or school community.
March 28, 2025
Today, I went back to PS76 and shadowed Nicole’s classes. In the fifth-grade class, she led the kids in their rose-bud-thorn check-in, which they have really gotten into the past few weeks and have been so willing to share. Then, we jumped into working on their Little Red Riding adaption. We split the students into their teams again, and they got to work on and then practice each scene. Then, we put it all together and each group performed for the class, scene by scene. At the end of class, we celebrated their success and talked about the process of adapting a fairy tale, what was hard or strange about it and what went well.
With the first graders, we started with a check-in; everyone shared how they were doing with a thumbs up, down, or in the middle. Then it was time for the Hello Song, which got everyone engaged. Today, Nicole read them a book called Lily’s Cat Mask, which tells a story of a girl called Lily who copes with new and scary situations using a cat mask. We then handed out materials, and students got to make their own paper plate cat masks. They loved this activity, and everyone gave their cat a name. At the end, Nicole invited the kids to come up two at a time and show the class their masks and tell the group the cats’ names. It was another fun day of social-emotional learning at PS76, and I am excited to go back next week!
April 11, 2025
On April 11, I shadowed Nicole again at PS76. The first class was the same group of fifth graders, who were excited to see me back after not being with them last week. Nicole started the session in the usual rose-bud-thorn fashion. The students would raise their hands to share either a rose (good thing), bud (looking forward to), or thorn (negative thing) that is going on for them in the moment, and the rest would practice listening respectfully. Next, we moved into a new game called “Breaking News.” Nicole invited the students to stand in a circle, and we would pass a microphone and say “breaking news” followed by something small that happened that morning. For example, “Breaking news: I rode the subway to school today.” This activity gets them thinking quickly and ready to play the same game in relation to the next theater-literacy project. We then played this game to review the story they read last week, The Empty Pot by Demi. We would pass around the microphone and take turns saying, “Breaking news…” and then something that happened in the story. It helped the students remember the book, but we still reviewed the story arc all together afterwards. The fifth graders are very familiar with this pattern: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. Once the students were reacquainted with the narrative, Nicole called a few up at a time to create still and then moving scenes of each part of the story arc. Everyone got a turn, and then the final scene included all the students at once. When they come back from spring break, they will practice adding dialogue and adapting this story into a play. To end today’s workshop, we played a theater game they learned recently, though I’m forgetting the name of it now!
In her first grade class, we began with a quick, visual emotional check-in before transitioning into the greeting Hello Song. We didn’t have a speaker this week, so everyone sang the words! The kids definitely knew it well enough by now. Next, we read the story for this week, and I got to do the read-aloud today! The book was called Thank You, Omu, by Oge Mora, about a woman who cooks a lovely stew and shares it with her neighbors until she has none left, but her neighbors bring her food to show gratitude. After reading, with a few pauses to talk about how the characters might be feeling and how we can notice and express those feelings, we passed out materials for an art activity based on the book. Each kid got a paper printout of a stew pot to color, and then we passed out construction paper ingredients, like vegetables and herbs, that they could collage into their stew. This was a fun activity because they really got to use their imaginations. Kids kept asking me for more tomatoes or onions!
April 25, 2025
On Friday, April 24, I got to go back to PS76 after a week away for their spring break. I had been looking forward to seeing these groups and working with Nicole again. In the first class with the fifth graders, Nicole started with a game called “And That’s What Happened,” which had everyone standing in a circle while one person got thirty seconds to recap their spring break and act it out if they chose before everyone choruses “and that’s what happened since I saw you last.” It was a nice way to discover how everyone spent their breaks and see what they’ve been up to, and to get everyone warmed up for Nicole’s class. Next, we did a brief Rose, Bud, Thorn, because it is part of their routine in these classes. Once everyone got the chance to share, we moved into the activity for the day, which was prop creation for the performance they are working on, The Empty Pot. This is the same story as the previous few weeks, but we reviewed the story arc again anyway. Then, we handed out materials for the props! We were making flower pots to go with the story, so we gave them small, colorful pots, and they each got to decorate one with rhinestones and markers. The rhinestones were a really fun medium, and super easy to work with because of the sticky backs. This was an exciting way to change up the class without changing the structure or end goal project.
Then Nicole and I moved to the first-grade classroom. We started with the Hello Song again, which the kids love to sing and dance to. Then, Nicole did a quick emotion check-in to see how they were feeling and make sure everyone was ready for class! Today’s activity was based on Thank You, Omu again, so we played Story Woosh to review the beginning, middle, and end of the story. Students got to imagine and act out scenes and feelings from the book. Then, we made community member puppets! To do this, Nicole and I passed out paper bags and showed the kids how to make a paper bag puppet with crayons, and then let the students pick a community member from the book to create a puppet of that character. Once they made their puppets, students started to act out their character and some of the story, so it was awesome to see some of them coming out of their shells to tell the story and play.
May 2, 2025
Today, March 2, was my second-to-last day at PS76. I joined Nicole for her same two classes this morning, the fifth and first graders. In the fifth-grade class, we started by coming together in a circle to play a theater game called “Pass the Clap.” There are different rounds and versions of this game, but we played it so that you pass the clap around the circle by trying to clap with your hands at the same time as the person next to you, speeding up each time the clap makes a full rotation around the circle. Then, you do it with different styles of clapping, like big or little and loud or soft. After this game, students had the opportunity as usual to share their rose, bud, or thorn. Next, Nicole invited them back to their seats to finish working on the flower pot props they started last week. The pots are looking bedazzled, stunning, and ready for the show. Finally, we started thinking about making groups for The Empty Pot performance they have been working on, but did not formalize the scenes yet. More next week!
After the fifth-grade class, I went with Nicole to her first-grade class again. We began with an emotional check-in, like usual, asking the students to share how they were feeling or doing with a thumbs up, down, or in the middle. Then, we played the Hello Song again to greet each other and get everyone settled in the space by dancing and singing. For today’s activity, we read a book called Maybe Something Beautiful by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell, which talks about the power of art to transform a neighborhood through the story of a little girl who gets her community to paint with her. While we read, Nicole encouraged the students to notice details, think about how the characters might be feeling throughout, and wonder what happened next. The art activity based on this story was community mural making! We handed out large sheets of papers to each table, and then as a team they made a mural together. The students had some challenges with working together and sharing, but with help were able to work through them. The final pieces were quite lovely, and next week Nicole will project them onto the board so they can see their community mural all together!
May 9, 2025
Friday, May 9 was my last day at PS76 working with Nicole and the last day of my internship with Arts For All. I’m going to miss these workshops! On this day, Nicole started with the fifth-grade class by jumping right into scene creation for The Empty Pot story so that the students had plenty of time to workshop it. We let them choose their groups, and then each group got randomly assigned to a section of the story arc. Then they got to rehearse their scenes, assigning themselves to characters and using the pot props they made. I made pipe cleaner flowers for them to add as well. Once ready, we gathered ourselves into an audience and each group performed their scene in story order, pausing for transitions and rounds of applause. Everyone got to participate in the last scene, including me! I played the emperor and got to read the lines a student wrote for me to conclude the performance.
After The Empty Pot performance, we had time for Nicole to lead a Rose-Bud-Thorn, so the fifth graders still got to participate in this ritual and share with us and each other at the end of class. Then it was time to say goodbye! I felt so appreciated when they were sad to hear it was my last week with them.
Next, Nicole and I moved to the first-grade classroom for their art session. She started with a brief emotional check-in, and then we sang the Hello Song again, of course. The students have gotten into a really good and familiar routine with Nicole’s workshops. Then, she read a book called Breathing Makes it Better by Christopher Willard and Wendy O’Leary, which talks about the power of taking a deep breath when dealing with strong emotions. This transitioned us into playing Guess the Emotion, in which Nicole showed an expression or face on the board and the kids would identify the feeling and embody it on their own faces. Finally, it was time to create! The art making activity for this class was creating a comic strip telling the story of a time that they felt any emotion. The kids did a really good job with this, identifying feelings and illustrating them to create a narrative. Many were quite open and vulnerable in sharing them with me as well, which was a meaningful moment to me. It was a lovely last day at PS76 with Arts For All!
