On Monday, March 7, the HPTA sponsored a presentation on the life and legacy of Helen Keller.

All first grade classes enjoyed this one-woman-show from Historical Perspectives, whose focus is to present strong character role models to children by portraying the lives of famous historical men and women.

Helen Keller’s story is a wonderful testimony to the power of hard work, determination and belief in oneself.

By watching this actress portray the early years of Helen Keller’s life, the children learned how she overcame the many challenges that she faced without the senses of sight and hearing to become an accomplished author and advocate for the hearing and vision impaired.

It was Helen Keller’s wish that people understand the blind and deaf can live life just as seeing and hearing people do; they just live it in a little different way.  At the end of the show, the actress (as Helen Keller) encouraged children to reach out and shake her hand, as she stated, “I won’t know you’re there if you don’t touch me.”

This helped the children understand how to better interact and be comfortable with those who are deaf and/or blind.  Once she broke from her character, the actress fielded a variety of questions from the students, and finished by teaching the students a few letters in sign language.

The students were also given the opportunity to check out a braille book at the end of the show.

Article and photos by Sonia Cleven

On February 4, all kindergartners were treated to the tales told by famous storyteller Len Cabrel.  He told his stories to six kindergarten classes in the morning and then to five more in the afternoon.

Cabrel has a wonderful style and easily engaged the children as he told tales of Anansi the Spider, why a rabbit has a short tail, the Cornbread Man, and one of a coyote and Old Man winter along with many others, all with his own spin on the stories.

He explained that Anansi stories were African folktales.  He had the children name animals with horns for the story.  The children impressed Cabrel with their answers which included goats, moose, buffalo, wildebeest, long horned sheep, and even an ibex!!

He told the children that the fox eats the cornbread man in the Cornbread Man story because he had a plan.  They talked about how important it is to always have a plan, even if you end up not following it exactly.

The children laughed at parts of stories, did some hand and feet movements, and even sang in some stories, and overall enjoyed themselves while having some social lessons reinforced.

Articles and photos by Maureen Belger