This Land We Love:
Crafting A Song Writing Legacy
By Kathleen Regnier, Peninsula State Park Naturalist,
and Joan Blackwood, Coordinator for Friends of Gibraltar
EE News, Environmental Education in WI, Summer, 2001
Last fall, 2nd and 3rd graders from Gibraltar Elementary in Fish Creek, WI, participated in a musical arts residency celebrating the legacy and landscapes of Door County’'s many State Parks.
Thanks to a Wisconsin Arts Board grant and funding from the State of Wisconsin, the Friends of Gibraltar organization was able to hire Madison’'s playful and imaginative singer-songwriter Ken Lonnquist.
Lonnquist, a 20-year veteran of writing songs, helped the children develop six songs with an environmental focus. Students took a field trip to each of the five parks in the county, enjoyed classroom visits by naturalists, toured a state park art exhibit, and attended song-writing sessions. All of these experiences culminated in two concerts where students gave musical expression to their state park experiences in front of over 500 people.
The remainder of this article describes the residency methodology and demonstrates how techers integrated environmental education into their curriculum at many levels.
Focusing on Local Landscapes
The connection to local landscapes was especially exciting because Door County has the greatest number of state parks of any county in Wisconsin. These parks embody the peninsula’'s rich heritage with their ancient burial sites, farmstead and cottage foundations, massive Icelandic-style structures, rocky bluffs, pristine shorelines, and rare species like dwarf lake iris and dune thistle. The residency helped children appreciate and understand the landscape around them; the very places for which they may become stewards.
Crafting The Songs
This arts residency enhanced the existing parks-school relationship and supported academic standards related to communities,. While at Newport State Park, students learned about it's history as a pioneer town. Later, they crafted a song that revealed what they had seen, heard and felt on the field trip. Lonnquist helped students discover “mood” and they created a wistful, steady melody, which evoked powerful imagery. The “bones” for example, refer to wooden beams from Newport’'s old foundations and dock:
There’s a road that disappears
Overgrown by flowers and years
It leads to a forgotten town
Bones scattered all around
Where a sawmill used to stand
Wooden beams lie on the land
And what used to be a dock
Is only a pile of rock
Can you tell me what became
Of the town whose last remains
Whisper with the wind’'s caress:
Newport Wilderness...
“"Don’'t ever underestimate a child’s ability to recall events, to have opinions on subject matter, or to create a unique tune,”" said Lori Free, Gibraltar music teacher, in a program evaluation.
For 2nd grade teacher Sue Olson, the arts residency was a reminder. “"One thing that was reinforced for me was the quality gained by allowing children to do.”"
Sue’'s observations were evident in the scientific detail created in the following verse, expressed so vividly because students walked the beach, touched the sand, and had it's secrets revealed by a naturalist:
Sand, multi-colored
The black, magnetized
You’'re apt to find many shapes and sizes
Beaches wider
Than not-long-ago
Growing more narrow as water rises
During the residency, naturalists told tales not in a classroom, but on the very site where events may have happened, with cedar trees reaching skywards and blue water all around. Such a sensual landscape surely made tha land’'s stories more understandable and memorable, and it is places remembered that are preserved.
Planning For Success
School and park staff ensured success through extensive planning one year in advance by securing the grant, contracting and scheduling with Mr. Lonnquist, and scheduling naturalist programs as soon as possible.
Teachers assisted with planning, and their dedication to integrate the project with class studies and standards was critical. During the weeks between field trips and songwriting sessions, teachers engaged students in several classroom activities. Students created bulletin board displays using their digital photos, learned from additional naturalist presentations, studied aerial maps of the county and photos of park plants, and wrote about their outdoor experiences.
During the field experiences, teachers and naturalists covered several subjects. For science, students learned about local plant and animal life and the habitats found at each of the parks. To enhance the social studies curriculum, park naturalists taught about map skills for studying different types of communities, and the uniqueness of both rural and urban settings.
Making The Grade
When the residency was complete, one of the organizers said, "The value to students, teachers, and community was worth the time, money, and planning.”"
“"I feel happy, proud, and glad when I write my own songs,”" said Charity, one residency 3rd grader.
2nd grade teacher Sue Olson recommends that other teachers “"Go for it! Ir’s a blast and an experience that you and the children will never forget.”"
