{"id":25309,"date":"2019-11-29T15:25:13","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T20:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=25309"},"modified":"2019-12-05T18:18:57","modified_gmt":"2019-12-05T23:18:57","slug":"kaleidoscope-program-drums-up-excitement-at-local-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/kaleidoscope-program-drums-up-excitement-at-local-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaleidoscope program drums up excitement at local schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

They were fidgety as they sat down on their gymnasium\nfloor in front of drums of all shapes and sizes lined up before a colourful\nbackdrop of African fauna, each creature imbued with symbolism that sparked the\nimagination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As soon as percussionist Fana Soro stepped forward in his\ncolourful, billowy clothes, the fidgeting immediately ceased as Mr. Soro\ntransported Grade 2 and 3 students at Our Lady of Grace Catholic Elementary\nSchool into the culture of his native Cote d\u2019Ivoire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Soro brought his Yamo! Yamo! presentation to Our Lady\nof Grace (OLG) on Thursday afternoon as the Aurora Cultural Centre kicked off\nits Kaleidoscope in the Schools program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kaleidoscope in the Schools program was founded by\nthe Aurora Cultural Centre earlier this year, through a donation from patrons\nJan Oudenes and Isobel Ralston, along with support from the Town of Aurora, to\ntake cultural programming on the road and into local schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Focusing on professional performances and workshops for\nstudents from Kindergarten through Grade 4 at no cost to parents, programming\nchoices were selected to hit on several themes in Ontario\u2019s education\ncurriculum, including conflict resolution, survival, emotions, feelings, and\novercoming language barriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy bringing the program into the schools, we\u2019re removing\nthe barriers to participation for all students, regardless of their situation,\u201d\nsaid Suzanne Haines, Executive Director of the Aurora Cultural Centre this past\nApril once they had funding in place. \u201cStudents with exceptionalities do not\nhave to leave their home school and known environment to participate. Schools\ndon\u2019t have to work out the logistics of busing and there is no cost, so no\neconomic barriers for kids. No one is left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is one of the many reasons OLG Principal Inez Donato\nwas eager to bring the Yamo! Yamo! (\u201cHello! How are you doing!\u201d<\/em> in\nBaoul\u00e9) presentation into school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe took a liking to the program right away and what I\nthink we liked about it a lot was there was so much variety to choose from and\nwe could pick something that spoke to our community,\u201d said Ms. Donato of\nKaleidoscope. Yamo! Yamo! is great because it lends itself to so many areas in\nthe curriculum [and] I was hoping we could bring it to the school in November\nfor Bullying Awareness Week. It fits perfectly because it exposes students and\nthe community to different cultures. What we\u2019re looking for in the wider school\ncommunity is that there is acceptance of each other, accepting each other\u2019s\ndifferences, and I am hoping that presentations like this will further\n<\/p>\n\n\n

[students\u2019]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

awareness and understanding of each other.\u201d\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is exactly what fuels Mr. Soro as a performer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having lived in Canada since 1997, Mr. Soro has seen\nfirsthand the benefits of intercultural exchange, and this is what he sets out\nto foster when he comes into schools like Our Lady of Grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope this makes a good connection and we can reach new\ngenerations,\u201d he said. \u201cI am hoping to show my culture to new generations and\nthat way they can connect with Africa. I want them to learn about Cote\nD\u2019Ivoire. We have so many African [cultures] on TV, but I want kids to see\nthings that aren\u2019t on TV, that way it becomes more real. Kids need to know that\nwe\u2019re made up of many different cultures and when they learn about the many\ndifferent cultures, they\u2019re not afraid. Some of the things we see on TV, we get\nscared, but when you see it and know about it, you won\u2019t be scared anymore.\nPlus, when it comes to music, music is everywhere. When you show them [the\ninstruments] we work with, they can see what they want to learn and where they\nwant to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe best question I get from students is sometimes they\nwill ask me what we eat in African and what we\u2019re wearing. I will show them my\nclothes and that they are not pyjamas and these are clothes you will see in\nAfrica. Sometimes they have no idea. They will learn each culture has their own\nstyle too. It\u2019s all about enjoying life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Ms. Donato: \u201cOur students were very engaged. At the\nbeginning, it seemed as though they didn\u2019t know what to expect, especially the\nyounger ones, but [Soro] did an amazing job engaging them through his\nstorytelling and definitely through the music. I think the more they were able\nto participate, the more engaged and involved [they were]. There was definitely\na lot of learning in an active and enjoyable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to thank the Aurora Cultural Centre [for having] this vision for us. I am looking forward to continued partnership with them. Their goal is to do one a year and that would be amazing. I look forward to continuing with this and having it grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir <\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They were fidgety as they sat down on their gymnasium floor in front of drums of all shapes and sizes lined up before a colourful backdrop of African fauna, each creature imbued with symbolism that sparked the imagination. As soon as percussionist Fana Soro stepped forward in his colourful, billowy clothes, the fidgeting immediately ceased […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2019-11-28-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Ad","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 10:38:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}