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Contact: Chris Guerre
Director, Public Relations
(703) 255-4096; chrisg@wolftrap.org

Vienna, VA

Small Bites! is a unique arts-in-education experience modeled on an original program created by the Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia. As part of the international Small Bites! initiative, Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts professional Teaching Artists have been commissioned to create and present environmentally themed educational performances for Baltimore school children participating in Wolf Trap’s seven-week, in-classroom residency programs. Before each Small Bites! performance, classroom teachers receive a one-page description of the original work, including details on the artists’ creative process and pre-/post-activities for the classroom. The Teaching Artists lead the children and teacher through active learning experiences that connect to the performance, and immediately after the performance, the artist facilitates a 20-minute guided reflection session to receive feedback and creative ideas from the students. On the following day, the teaching artists conduct interactive sessions with the students building on the input they provided on the previous day.

“(The students) loved the guitar. Their faces just lit up when they heard the music coming from the hallway. They learned many things from this short lesson. They learned that the earth turns and that there are other things on earth besides people and that trash makes the earth look bad, and that we can all do something to help keep the earth clean.” June Matthews; Director, Walter Perkins Day Care Center; Baltimore, Maryland.

During the 2007–2008 school year, five Wolf Trap Teaching Artists are leading four Small Bites! sessions in 32 classrooms for more than 600 Baltimore school children between the ages of three and five.

“Small Bites! is one of the great success stories of the Arts Centre education program,” says Greg Randall, Director of Programming at the Arts Centre. “The association with Wolf Trap is a wonderful opportunity for the Arts Centre to share ideas with an organization that has similar goals to us. It promises much for the future development of arts education for students from both Australia and the United States.” The international collaboration is a program of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts and the Melbourne Arts Center, Australia, and supported by the John Michael Jacquemin Charitable Trust, the Catherine Filene Shouse Education Fund, Baltimore City Public Schools, and Baltimore City Head Start.

Baltimore schools participating in the program are
Walter Perkins Day Care Center; St. Vincent de Paul Head Start, Northeast; Emily Price Jones Head Start/YMCA Saint Cecilia’s; Metro Delta Head Start at Eutaw Marshburn; Umoja Head Start Academy; St. Veronica’s Head Start; Yubi Head Start; St. Bernardine’s Head Start; St. Jerome’s Head Start; St. Vincent de Paul Head Start, Southeast; Our Future Family Child Care; Windsor Hills; Mary E. Rodman; Thomas Jefferson; John Eager Howard; Woodhome; Northwood; Lakeland  Early Learning Center; Heritage Early Learning Center; Lockerman Bundy Early Learning Center; William Paca; Dallas Nicholas; Graceland Park; and John Ruhrah.