HSE Schools, Fishers Art Center & Hamilton East Public Library team up to bring the arts to every Kindergartener
Submitted
Kindergarteners throughout Hamilton Southeastern Schools recently practiced bongo drums at the Hamilton East Public Library, getting a hands-on introduction to music through a new program built on teamwork between a school district, an art center, and a public library.
The drumming was one stop in “The Arts, a Kindergarten Experience,” a partnership among HSE Schools, the Fishers Art Center (a division of the Indianapolis Art Center), and Hamilton East Public Library. The program will reach approximately 1,100 Kindergarteners across HSE’s 13 elementary schools, as each one will visit both the art center and the library during the school year.
The program is HSE’s sixth guaranteed student experience, part of a growing collection designed to give every student access to hands-on learning throughout their time in the district.
Mallory Lynch helps a group of Kindergarteners on their project. (Photo provided)
A community effort from the start
Each partner brings something to the table. The Fishers Art Center offers a professional studio setting, the library brings its literacy mission and its makerspace, and HSE ties every visit back to what students are learning in the classroom.
Rooted in standards, built for 5-year-olds
The program aligns with Indiana academic standards for visual arts, dance, music, and English/language arts, connecting what happens on the trip with classroom instruction.
Designed with young learners in mind, the activities span several modes of the fine arts: music, dance and movement, painting, and clay. Gripping a paintbrush, shaping clay, and keeping a beat on a drum give Kindergarteners age-appropriate practice with fine and gross motor skills while they create.
Literacy runs through the entire experience. Students read a book about a little girl and drumming before the Bongo Boy drumming session. Their itinerary also includes watercolor painting and a clay activity at the Fishers Art Center, plus a second library activity connecting the day back to reading.
The program’s arts focus adds something new to the district’s guaranteed experiences, which otherwise center on STEM or social studies, and introduces HSE’s youngest learners to the creative opportunities available in Fishers.
Mariah Niedbalksi, program manager at Fishers Art Center, works with a student. (Photo provided)
Shayla Grail Jones, a teacher at Fishers Art Center, demonstrates how to do the next step in a project. (Photo provided)
Big-city opportunities, small-city collaboration
HSE Schools Board of Trustees President Tiffany Pascoe said the program shows what the community can do when it works together.
“It truly takes a village,” Pascoe said. “When our library, our art center, and our schools come together, our Kindergarteners get music, dance, painting, and clay, all tied to Indiana academic standards and building the motor skills and literacy that matter so much at this age. That’s what makes HSE so unique. We offer big-city opportunities with small-city personalization and collaboration.”
A school district, an art center, and a library, each strong on its own, chose to pool their expertise so that every kindergartener in HSE gets the same rich introduction to the arts.
Special thanks go to the Fishers Art Center teachers and staff, HSE Schools staff (bus drivers, teachers, district leadership, and food services to name a few) and the classroom volunteers whose time and care helped bring this experience to life for HSE’s youngest learners.
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