Russ Childers1555 Old State Route 74Batavia, Ohio 45103 513-732-2015 russchilders@fuse.net |
Moving the Mountains to YouIntro · Bibliography · Recorded Music · ActivitiesA Program By Russ ChildersArtist Study GuideKentucky Center for the Arts Russ Childers demonstrates creatively that "if you want any more, you have to sing it yourself." His Appalachian heritage taught him to learn for himself the stories, songs, music, and dance of his ancestors. Choose his storytelling program to learn the real art to storytelling, and you'll hear why the phrase "and that's another true story" follows every whopper. Or make musical instruments from recycled materials directed by Russ's old-time ingenuity. Or learn history through the traditional songs and play parties of the Southern Highlands. Or discover the blended cultures of Africa, Native America, and the British Isles nestled together in the mountains of Appalachia through the music in a gourd banjo, a fiddle, and a dulcimer. Bibliography - Teacher / Student Resources on Appalachian Resourcefulness
Recorded Music
Activities That Stress Recycling and Reusing Cultural and Natural ResourcesPlay "Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?"Sit in a circle with one player ("It") in the center. With hands held behind his/her back, someone in the circle begins passing a button (or pretending to) to others in the circle. Everyone keeps their hands held behind their back throughout the game to do this. Players pass (or pretend to pass) and receive (or pretend to receive) button. When the player in the center ("It") calls "Button, button, who's got the button?" the passing stops. The player in the center tries to guess who has the button. If the player guesses correctly, the player gets to be "It" again. If the player guesses wrong, then a new "It" goes to the center to play again, with the former "It" passing the button this time. Or try this alternate method with a semicircle of players sitting with their cupped hands (palms loosely facing) held out together in front of them. The player with the button passes his cupped hands in between each player's cupped hands, dropping button in someone's hands. Whether or not the player actually drops the button in someone's hands, he continues until he has gone through everyone in the semicircle. Then he says "Button, button, who's got the button?" The one who guesses correctly gets to pass the button next time. Research some other old games that your grandparents and great-grandparents used to play. Try writing out the directions and "publish" them as a classroom collection.Make Button HummersDig into Grandma's button box to find the perfect big button. Ask her for a 3' length of yarn or thin white grocery string, too. Thread the button onto the length of yarn or string, which has been tied to make a loop. Twirl ends with button in the center until tightly wound. Gently pull hands away from each other until button begins to spin and hum as it rewinds itself. See Foxfire Book of Toys and Games for details.Dress and Feed a Cucumber BabyUse that last overlarge cucumber from the garden-the one you forgot until it grew too big for eating. You'll need pebbles for eyes, a metal spoon to scrape out the insides of the cucumber and a table knife (or appropriate implement for the age of the child) to carve the eyes and mouth. Find a scrap of material to serve for the diaper and a diaper pin to fasten it round the cucumber baby's bottom. Cut off the end of the cucumber to scrape out the insides, cutting a mouth and two tiny eye spaces. Fit the pebbles into the eye sockets, dress the baby in its diaper. Feed it some mud, and, oops, it's time to change the baby! See the story in Foxfire Book of Toys and Games. Or try making a sweet potato doll and read The Sweet Patootie Doll by Mary Calhoun. What other materials could you use to make a doll? Read Cornhusk, Silk, and Wishbones by Michelle Markel. Sing your babies to sleep. Collect the favorite lullabies of your classroom and "publish" them in a book. If you wish to view a cucumber baby, click hereTry a Handpatting GameFor this challenging hand-patting game that comes from African traditions carried to the New World, sit cross-legged on the floor. Learn the words to the Juba song, or pat out this rhythm to any fiddle or banjo tune. Watch out! By the time you get through the first line "Juba this and Juba that" and start on the second "Juba killed a yaller cat," you are one beat off what you were patting the first time through. For other hand-patting games of the Gullah tradition, read Bessie Jones' Step It Down. What other hand-patting games are popular on your school grounds? JU - Pat your right hand to your right knee.
Dance a Traditional Play-PartyDance and play "Bow to the Mountain" as you sing it, according to the tune in John and Nancy Langstaff's The Christmas Revels Songbook. Make a circle of dancers holding hands and moving in a clockwise direction. Choose a leader who goes around in the opposite direction outside the ring. The leader taps the shoulders of three children (on "one, two, three" in the song) and they leave the circle and follow the leader into the outside ring. When the last child is left in the middle of the ring, everyone stops moving to face into the center and bows to the "Mountain." Then the dance begins again with the Mountain as the new leader.Repeat until the last child is left. Then sing Find other play parties in Singing Games and Play Party Games by Richard Chase. Start an Appalachian Jam BandMake musical instruments from kitchen trash! See how it's done in Ty's One-Man Band by Mildred Pitts Walter. Need dancers? Make clothespin dancers from directions in Homemade Instruments by Dallas Cline. Find how to make instruments there, too, or in books like The Foxfire Book of Toys and Games.
Sing a Chicken Song; Make a Chicken CluckerSave a disposable plastic cup, punch a tiny hole in the bottom, thread a string through the hole and tie it to a paper clip on the outside of the cup. That will keep the string from coming back through the hole when you tug on it later. Tie a one-inch square piece of sponge to the other end of the string. Hole the cup upside down with the sponge hanging down. Pinch the string with the sponge and yank gently on the string. (Sometimes it works better if the sponge is damp.) BAWK BAWK BAWK! Who let the chickens in? Decorate your Chicken Clucker with beady eyes, a beak, and a cockscomb if you like. Find a similar "tin can howler" in Rocket Science: 50 Flying, Floating, Flipping, Spinning Gadgets Kids Create Themselves by Jim Wiese. For more booklists, web sites, and activity ideas, link to Russ Childers' web site at http://home.fuse.net/russchilders. |
