The four-day workshop with Holly

• Monday:
  the program begins with an assembly where Holly and the school sing two of the mass songs together. This is followed by rehearsals. As a rule, Group 1 in the morning, Group 2 after recess, and Group 3 after lunch. Holly sings with students to develop a group sound, phrasing and expression of songs. Rehearsals last 40-60 minutes. In schools that have a music specialist, additional choral and musical parts are developed.


• Tuesday:
  Rehearsals in the morning, after recess and after lunch.


• Wednesday:
  Same schedule as Tuesday


• Thursday or Friday:
  Dress Rehearsal, including songs and student introductions.


• Evening Concert takes place from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. on the Thursday or Friday.
  
  

Parents

Connectors—
Parents are the connectors, the conduits between the lessons learned at school and how they can
be applied and supported at home. Parents can help enrich the Voices of Nature experience their children receive by becoming actively involved with the school program.

To get the most out of the program, parents are asked to:

• Enable your children to practice the songs at home. Talk about the environmental issues discussed in the lyrics.


• Work with your children on improving your family’s ecological footprint.


• If your child/ren are interested in getting environmentally active, encourage them! There are plenty of choices, depending on the interest of the child.


• Support environmental initiatives at the school.


• Take on the challenge to generate revenue for your school—sell out your Voices of Nature concert tickets so there is “standing room only”; pre-sell copies of CDs; or support a beverage container recycling program.


• Publicize the school concert and CD in the community—make a big noise on behalf of your
  children learning about local oceans, habitats and organisms!

The Voices of Nature School Program is often brought to the school as a Parent Advisory Council (PAC) initiative. Parents support the integrated learning approach to issues of global importance, and the community-building opportunities that a special concert event can provide. It’s the ultimate win/win. School PACs can even realize a modest profit when they take on the challenge of generating ticket or CD revenue for their school

Program costs and cost-recovery opportunities

• Program costs are negotiable. Additional concert expenses may apply if the school wishes to have the concert occur at a theatre.


• Costs cover fees to ART, the services of Holly, resource materials and travel expenses. Concert expenses such as venue rental, sound/lights, bussing, etc., are not included.


• Schools can sell concert tickets, with all revenues retained by your school.


• Schools can also sell CDs @ $20; the school keeps $5 per CD sold (this applies to any of the CDs that ART produces).


• In 2004/05 half the schools made a modest return after all costs were covered.

Program impact—environmental and social value

• As with many events in life, your school community will get out of this program what they put into it. Many schools have used the Voices of Nature program as a catalyst for environmental change on their campus—an opportunity to institute a new program of recycling or composting; creating a garden to reclaim lands and feed people healthy food; or planting shade trees where there was once concrete.


• The process of working together to produce a special concert where the community gathers to celebrate the earth in song is a healthy social lesson that children remember for a lifetime.

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