Stephen K Hayt Elementary School

Chris Inserra

Grant Amount: 10,000

Chris Inserra, a multi-linguistic singer, songwriter and human rights activist, will build on the Global Music program and partnership created and implemented for the past five years with Hayt students and the entire Hayt School community. Through music and storytelling, Ms. Inserra will continue to engage kindergarten through third grade students using rhythm instruments, maps for world geography, sign language, live music, recordings, movement, and songs developed by students.

Additionally, Ms. Inserra will work directly with classroom teachers to align her instruction to literacy Common Core standards and Social Science pacing. Furthermore, the visual arts teacher, Priscilla Cha, and Ms. Inserra will build upon last year’s parallel curriculum to integrate the visual arts along with the global music program. Students will be studying countries that span the globe through both visual arts, music, and children’s’ literature for the entirety of Ms. Inserra’s residency.

For the third year we will add a culminating World Cultures Celebration, the Cultural Family Festival, which will engage primary students and their families in a fair-type atmosphere sharing music, art, craft, costume, activities, and cuisine representative of the vast array of cultures included in Hayt community. Towards this goal, Chris and Priscilla will collaborate with Jillian Baker, Music teacher and Arts’ Liaison, along with a now solid team of classrooms teachers from the two previous years, lead by Jody Foss, the second grade bilingual teacher, to build upon the global music and art foundation cultivated over the past five years.