Opera enlightens local elementary students
BY STEFFANEY CLARK Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

Steffaney Clark/Gulf Breeze News Timothy Kennedy, far right, practices with Navarre school children.

Elementary students at Holley- Navarre Primary School (HNPS) are creating an opera with the help of the Pensacola Opera. The opera, which takes the entire year to complete, "Is completely child created," says Jamie Pahukoa, a second grade teacher at Holley-Navarre Primary.

"With the assistance of our music teacher Ann Leffard, and our art teacher, the students write compositions, create and design sets, everything from AZ."

Pahukoa explained that "Teachers are always so limited on time and have so many demands."

Pahukoa added, "It focuses on reading, writing and basic skills. It shows that there are more creative ways for kids to learn than just handing out worksheets. We learn together and it boosts their self esteem and gives them a sense us all a sense of pride for what we accomplish during the course of a year."

It is Pahukoa's second year working with the Pensacola Opera. Last year was the premier year of the child created opera. Timothy Kennedy, the education director at the Pensacola Opera first brought the idea to the principle at HNPS who was eager to have the students participate.

Steffaney Clark/Gulf Breeze News One of the classes participating in a joint effort with the Pensacola Opera is the kindergarten class pictured above

"Getting the opera into schools is something I have been working on for about three years now." Says Kennedy, who originally chose HNPS because he admired the work of their music teacher, Ann Leffard. Kennedy, who has been involved in many outreach programs for schools including the traveling opera Aesop's Fables, and Opera in a Trunk claimed that he had "Three specific goals in mind when creating this: to reach out to a specific child more than once a year, give them a better understanding of the opera and use that as a tool between academic and art teachers and create a project that would generate statistics through pre and post testing."

According to HNPS Assistant Principal Rick Hardcastle "I was skeptical at first, but as one who analyzes test scores, last year we saw the improvement. The children listen and cooperate better, and have picked up so many skills. It was time well spent."

About 40 children are involved this year, combining a second grade class and a kindergarten class to create the opera. Having the two different age groups has proved to be very beneficial.

"Their maturity level has gone so much higher," says music teacher Ann Leffard. "It is such a great leadership opportunity for the second graders. When all the students are together, it's like having twenty teachers because the second graders help out so much. It really encourages peer modeling and both grade level's potential has grown leaps and bounds."

The aspects of creating the opera have allowed the students to spend more time in the music and art rooms than other classes, giving more time to develop skill in the arts. Leffard claims that "They are learning phonetic skills, which are great precursors to reading. And the work done in the music room is bleeding over into other areas in a great way."

This year, four schools are participating in this program with the help of Kennedy and the Pensacola Opera and next year it is projected that there will be 15 schools participating. The students at Holly- Navarre Primary will be performing their play on May 27 at the primary school and will be having a performance for their schoolmates during the day, and their friends and family in the evening.