VA Campus: West Falls Session 1 Newsletter
A Note for the Directors of Camp Levine
Dear Camp Levine Families,
We can’t believe Session 1 is already wrapped! We’ve had such an awesome time creating a “Tapestry of Traditions” at Camp Levine this session! We’re thankful for you sharing your camper with us this summer. We are in awe at all that our campers have accomplished in three short weeks. It’s been a pleasure watching them explore and enjoy the creative freedom that music and arts inspire.
Our Camp Levine team is great, but it is the support of our Camp Levine community that make it all possible.
Whether this is your camper’s first or fifteenth summer at Camp Levine, we hope that through our theme “A Tapestry of Traditions,” we have provided a fun and engaging artistic experience and camp memories that will last a lifetime.
We wish you a great rest of your summer hope to see you next year!
Best,
Jazmin Goodson, Director of Camp Levine
Catherine Hammes, Co-Director of Camp Levine
A Note from the Site Director
Dear Families,
Thank you so much for sharing your kids with us over the past three weeks. I know you have many options for summer activities, especially in an area like ours, so we are incredibly grateful you decided to share your summer with us. It has been a pleasure to see the campers learn and grow, make new friends, try new things, find their voice, and live outside their comfort zones. I know I speak for all our faculty when I say your children have created a special place in our hearts. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and remember you always have a home here at Levine.
Kind Regards,
Paul
Site Director, Camp Levine Falls Church
Morning Classes
Morning classes at Camp Levine are music an instrument focused. During the morning classes our campers grades 1-6 experience Instrumental Music introductions and instruction, General Music, Art, and Games & Sports. Read below to hear from our teachers about what your campers did during Session 1!
Music+ (General Music): Jonathan Andert
The Madals (1st/2nd Grade)
It has been a pleasure working with the Madals group in Music+ this session! We have explored several cultures through song, dance and instrument playing. Students shared their creativity by making choreography for songs and improvising on the xylophones. During our recorded performance, you will see each camper perform two songs – Vamos a la Mar (from Guatemala) and Funga Alafia (from West Africa). Other favorite games from this session were Sarasponda (from Holland) and Lost My Gold Ring (from Jamaica).
The Marimbas (3rd/4th Grade)
The Marimba group was full of fine musicians this session. Our focus songs during Music+ were I Let Her Go-Go (from Trinidad & Tobago) and Land of the Silver Birch (from Canada). For each song, the campers learned to sing the melody, created choreography as a group, and learned percussion parts to accompany it. Campers chose their favorite part for our performance video. This group also had fun playing games like Poison Pattern and Sarasponda (from Holland).
The Cimbaloms (3rd/4th Grade)
The Cimbaloms are a very talented and hard-working group of campers. They quickly learn pieces and are wonderful young performers. We can’t wait for you to see our recording. This group traveled to Jamaica and learned an arrangement of the folk song Mango Walk. After learning to sing the piece, they broke into small groups and created movements to go along with the song. Finally, they each learned two challenging xylophone parts and a drum part. We then traveled to France and learned to sing and play Frere Jacques. Once learned, we performed it as a two-part round. This group had fun with movement activities throughout camp, including Mirror, Mirror; Shadow; The Shape Game; and ribbon/scarf dances.
The Pandeiros (5th/6th Grade )
The Pandeiros group were a joy to have in Music+. They were so much fun to work with and created some fantastic music together. They learned a beautiful (“mysterious” according to the campers) folk song from Thailand entitled Ngam Sang Duan (Shining Moon). Using props like a hand drum and ribbons, the campers created some lovely choreography to go along with the song. The campers were then challenged to compose their own xylophone accompaniment. The result was incredible. You will be able to see it on our performance video. This group also learned a folk song from the islands off the coast of Georgia in the US. This is a happy piece called Yonder Come Day. The group can sing this as an acapella piece with three parts AND perform the three parts on xylophone! The group is full of talented singers, instrumentalists, dancers, and composers.
Piano: Allyson Walker
Campers in piano focus have learned an Ewe lullaby from Ghana and a popular video game theme based on a Russian folk song. They’ve studied keyboard geography, rhythm, and technique. Campers have also learned to decode a color-coded music score and play in a piano ensemble.
Percussion: Web Grant
In percussion the campers learned how to hold the drumsticks, how to play the full drum stroke, and how different areas of the drums and cymbals produce different sounds. What I was most impressed with was their creativity when doing a rock beat on the drum set. Thank you for allowing me to teach your precious children. Web
Morning Sing
One of the best traditions at Camp Levine is our Morning Sing. We gather together as a whole camp each morning to sing. We are accompanied by our world class instrumental teachers, lovingly known as “The Band.” This year, our theme was A Tapestry of Traditions. The campers learned folk songs from around the globe, as well as our Camp Levine Song and Camp Levine Chant. You will hear some of these on our recording. The songs included: Tua, Tua (from Ghana), Kookaburra (from Australia), Tingalayo (from the Caribbean Islands), J’entends le moulin (French Canadian), Siyahamba (from South Africia), Aiken Drum (from Scotland), and Peace like a River (a spiritual from America). It was so much fun singing with the campers, apprentices, and staff each morning.
Games & Sports: Denise Wilson-Morgan
The heat and rain have kept us indoors for the majority of camp, but it hasn’t stifled or dampened our fun. We’ve adapted classic games such as crab soccer, regular soccer, sharks and minnows, and others to our indoor space using beach balls, balloons, pool noodles, frisbees and jump ropes. The apprentices made an awesome obstacle course. We had a blast using the parachute for the Seven Jumps dance and popcorn where we tried to keep as many beach balls as possible on the parachute. We definitely put our creative talents to work and had a great time as evidenced by the laughter and smiles coming from Studio A!
Art: Pauline Lamb
Morning art with the kiddos has been a productive blast. In our first week, we made Bolero toys and dream catchers. In our second week, we made paper Dragon puppets, and cherry blossom paper fans which will be featured in our final performance in the song Sakura. In our final week we made our own rain sticks and worked on the props for our final performance.
Flute: Mary Crumine
The campers have made amazing progress in just three weeks! In the three focus groups, we started by learning how to produce a sound on the head-joint alone. We practiced forming our “embouchures” and blowing at just the right angle to hit the “sweet spot”. We then learned how to assemble and hold the flute and where to place our fingers. Each group worked on the tunes “Hot Cross Buns” (English street cry) and “Alouette” (French Canadian folk song). The Pandeiro focus students also learned to play “Funga Alafia”, a song with roots in West Africa. The Madals group received a “digest” experience of playing flute as they rotated instruments during their “sampler” time.
Throughout the session all campers got to play fun games that help develop breath support, tone, and articulation, all key aspects of flute playing. They were also introduced to the sounds of flutes from around the world, including the dizi (China), shakuachi (Japan), zampoña and quena (South America), and sybyzgy (Central Asia).
Guitar: Doug Rogers
The Guitar focus group quickly mastered “Kojo no Tsuki” a Japanese Folk Song meaning “Moonlight over Castle Ruins.” The groups even mastered a d minor chord, which is a 3 fingered left-hand chord that is quite challenging. They are able to play the entire melody of the piece and also provide chordal accompaniment. Also, we perform a Spanish Waltz in e minor, which featured advanced shifting up to the 7th fret and harmonics! The guitar sampler groups are familiar with the music of Francisco Tarrega, Pat Methany and Leo Brouwer. They learned the strings of the guitar, how to push down the strings with their left hand, and how to strum. They enjoyed playing through a short melody called “Bugler’s Tune.” The focus groups are looking forward to the debut performance of Waltz by Calayatud and Kojo no Tsuki in the video recording this week.
Afternoon Classes
Afternoon classes at Camp Levine are musical theater focused. During the afternoon classes our campers grades 1-6 experience Dance, Drama, and Choral music classes. These 3 classes collaborate to produce a musical theater performance at the end of the session. Read below to hear from our teachers about what your campers did during Session 1!
Drama: Maria Khoobyar
The first week, campers explored sound, self expression, movement, characterization, and story telling. The second week, we explored scene work and learned about the elements of a story and improvised story telling through scene work. Lastly, we auditioned for and prepared our short plays for performance week.
Dance: Pauline Lamb
The students have gotten a taste of different styles of dance from around the globe. They have learned, Bhangra, Irish step dancing, African dance, a Japanese fan dance, and American sign language. The students have been an absolute pleasure to work with.
Choral: Jonathan Andert
All campers attended Vocal/Choral class every afternoon. The Mahdals and Marimbas combined together, and the Cimbaloms and Pandieros attended class together. All groups learned many folk songs from around the world including: De Colores (Mexico), Waltzing Matilda (Australia), Shake the Papaya Down (Jamaica), and Sakura (Japan). They also learned an opening number called A Musical Tapestry and, to close, the famous What a Wonderful World as performed by Louis Armstrong. Each group also learned an individual folk song to sing with their plays: Mahdals – Tafta Hindi (Lebanon/Syria); Marimbas – Sambalele (Brazil); and Cimbaloms – Ai Hai Yo (China). The campers liked to play chorus/drama games at the end of each class, including Bippity Bippity Bop and Pass the Beat Around the Room.
Check out photos of our campers from Session 1! They had an awesome time exploring the seasons through music and the arts.
Teen Apprentice Tales
TAs from The Madals:
Hey Camp Families, we’re delighted to tell you that our 1st and 2nd grade group has been a constant slideshow of fun. Our group has developed close bonds of friendship through dancing, singing, playing, and acting. They enjoyed playing the xylophone and singing songs like Tafta Hindi and What a Wonderful World. In Sports and Games even though we were stuck inside, we still enjoyed games like Sleeping Bunnies, Relay Races, and Follow the Leader. We really enjoyed working with the Madals this session and we hope to see them next year!
TAs from The Marimbas:
Hello camper families! The kids have had lots of fun at camp practicing their instruments, making fun crafts in art, and playing games with their friends! The campers got to express their creativity during improv in drama and they got to have small roles in the play. The Marimbas loved choreographing their own dances in Music+ and learning new songs. Some favorites in Sports & Games were Crab Soccer, Limbo, and Red Light–Green light. Campers formed friendships while playing their focus instruments together. The Marimbas were truly a delight to have and I hope to see them again next year!
TAs from the Cimbaloms:
The session 1 Camp Levine Cimbaloms group was a very high energy group of campers. Out of all their classes, most of them enjoyed drama the most and also enjoyed making crafts for their final performance in art. At the beginning of the camp, most of the campers were very shy and didn’t like talking to one another, but as camp went on, they built friendships and got much closer. They all enjoyed Music+, though some campers were a bit scared of dancing and singing. They all eventually realized it wasn’t so scary. Overall, everyone in the group loved camp and each of them has definitely made memories at camp Levine.
TAs from The Pandeiros:
The drizzles have had a great time at Camp Levine this session!
They travel to different classrooms and classes to explore the 4 seasons in diverse ways. In art, they created a DIY object to represent each season (snowflakes, leaves, flowers, and bumblebees). In music + they have learned and played along with different winter themed songs. In sports and games, they played a variety of different games such as ghost in the graveyard, animal trivia, and follow the leader. In sampler they have been able to play 4 different instruments (percussion, piano, guitar, violin) and have had a lot of fun getting to “sample” each one of them. In vocal choral, they have learned a bunch of different songs to contribute to the final performance and even wrote their own song. In drama, they have played many different games that have to do with theater arts including, duck duck animal and ships and sailors. Finally, in dance, they have learned a few different dances to contribute to the final performance including the song “Raining Tacos”. The drizzles have had a blast in each and every class.