Artist-in-Residency (AIR) Archive
2009: Broadway Elementary School


Location:180 Oraton Street, Newark, NJ 07104
Principal: Alejandro Echevarria

The Broadway Elementary School residency was facilitated by drama instructor, Donna Holmes, who has extensive experience working with Newark students through previous residency programs and the Newark School of the Arts. Ms. Holmes facilitated a series of inter-disciplinary lessons for a 1st grade class and two 5th grade classes. In the first grade class, Ms. Holmes collaborated with the classroom teacher to incorporate drama into the student’s language arts studies that included the work of Eric Carle. Using “The Grouchy Ladybug” as a foundation for inter-disciplinary lessons, the classroom teacher and Ms. Holmes explored themes within the story to address content-areas such as science, math, and LAL. For example, students wrote about the life cycle of the ladybug, using vocabulary words to describe the physical processes larva, pupa, etc. They also used writing and drawing to illustrate thematic elements of the story. The students’ experiences throughout the residency culminated in the development of a performance that was shared with the wider school community and parents. Each student performing in the presentation wore costumes created by the resident art teacher Sherise Green.

The 5th grade classes focused on the sciences and LAL. The students collaborated and wrote a play based on space, space travel, planets, prehistoric and extinct animals. The title of their presentation was “Journey to Planet Extinction”. The presentation utilized drama in an effective way to underscore the science and literacy content areas. The students and classroom teachers were engaged and excited to be exposed to the infusion of creativity and knowledge-building.


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