March 2007 - Starbuck's Foundation funds grant for Young Audiences of Colorado
Thanks to a grant funded by the Starbuck's Foundation called "Giving Voice", Young Audiences of Colorado placed Katherine in three Edison Elementary School kindergarten classes for two weeks as an artist-in-residence.

During the residency, Katherine helped each class write lyrics and melodies, create movements, perform and record an original song. The children then illustrated a lyrical line from each song, and three sets of the lyrics and illustrations were bound into books and displayed at a local Starbuck's.

Song writing ties really well into any language arts program, and provides a variety skills necessary for many literacy levels. Although Kinders need more guidance, writing songs appeals to all ages, and I have helped students write more than 60 songs. When children complete a song and learn it, most
of them will remember that song--and much of the songwriting process--throughout their lives.

Here are just of few of the literacy skills we address:

Brainstorming; phrasing; syllables/emphasis; action verbs; perfect and imperfect rhymes, inner rhymes; rhythm and meter; hook; title, verse and lyrics; cliches; metaphor; letter sounds; creative visualization;
verbalizing; pronouns and voice; etc.

Click here to listen to the songs, see a cool movie and download the lyrics to all three songs.

March 2007 - Building "Bridges"
Another exceptional program that Katherine has recently participated in is called "Bridges." This is an after school program coordinated by Adriana Paredes. She brings a wide variety of talented artists into two Commerce City (near Denver, CO) schools twice a week for a 6-week period. Thanks to the generosity of that program, each child received a CD copy of the song they wrote.

Click here to listen to "We Are Stars" and download the lyrics.

April 2006 - BEST Arts Conference in Long Beach, CA: Arts in Education Event Draws Record Crowd
This event, now seven years old, was first conceived by--and is still coordinated by Ilean Rabens and a very able team from the Long Beach Art Museum. The auditorum was so full, (750+) that chairs were added in back of the stage and over a hundred people were unable to attend my keynote presentation.

As far as I know, this conference is the only one that truly celebrates the arts and teaches pre-school caregivers and educators how best to use the arts to reach children more effectively. I'd like to applaud everyone who helped organize this event and hope that more communities and states will consider providing arts-related events for early childhood educators.

Nov. 2005 - Alameda County kicks off Week of the Young Child with a special gift of Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta® Music
Last November, I presented a workshop in Asilomar at the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network. Wendy Nauman, one of the participants, and a child care advocate, recently called to see if it would be possible to create a compilation cd of some of my songs. Because of Wendy and the entire staff of Every Child Counts, Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta® Music has just licensed 13 songs and completed a cd for distribution to all Alameda County (CA) early child care providers during Week of the Young Child. We'd like to applaud Wendy for her ingenuity and for introducing new music and music-based activities to children ages 0-5 in such a remarkable manner.

From Farmington, New Mexico
IT was a HOT summer in New Mexico...but the Farmington Library is sooooo cool! It's definitely state of the art with great books an unbelievably beautiful building, opaque glass room dividers with petroglyph symbols that celebrate the Anasazi culture that once inhabited that area, a special performance stage, Apple computer recording equipment, a craft area --even a special space for the teen set. Besides all that, the staff was incredible. Anyway, I had the best time there. Check it out at www.infoway.org and plan a trip to the Southwest sometime.

Early in the morning before my show I took a long walk along the river-- through a park the city has started to develop. It was really beautiful, and I even saw a coyote.

After the concert, I also presented a songwriting workshop for about 20 kids ranging in ages from 6 to 13. They wrote and recorded this first verse and chorus to this song in the o-nly time we had allotted: 40 minutes--a really FAST song! I think what the Farmington Friends accomplished is also pretty cool, so here it is! Besides-- as a writer, I am always learning. Thanks to this song, I now know what "pegs" are!

Click here to hear the song, "Friends Forever" and get the lyrics.

Kick-Ta-Bill-Icky...93 Year Old Woman Shares Similar Phrase!
I recently performed for 250 senior citizens, and told the story of "Hunk-Ta-Bunk-Ta" (the phrase my grandmother taught me). If you've been looking through this website, you will know the whole story and the fact that she learned it from her great great grandmother. Below, it is spelled phonetically and written as it was phrased:
Kick ta
Bill icky
All uh guh lock sta
Hunk ta bunk ta boo
Yoo hoo!

Wherever I go I try to find information about it-- what language it might be; what it might mean; if there are similar phrases somewhere in the world.

After the concert, a lovely 93 year old woman named Elizabeth Ellet told me that she and her brother had grown up in Juneau, Alaska and used this phrase to call to their pet rabbit:
Hip ta min icky
Honey ka zack da
Boom da la
Da hoo
Yoo hoo!

Even though the sounds are a bit different, Elizabeth phrased it exactly as my grandmother did. If there is anyone who can add to this information...please feel free to share it with me, and perhaps one day we'll find out where that phrase REALLY got started!