We’ve been having so much fun in our current semester of the Youth Stringband program that we’ve completely forgotten to share information about it! Oops! But trust us – we’re having a blast each week, and everyone is learning a LOT.
We have once again split our students into two sections – one group meets at the Floyd Event Center at the EcoVillage, and another group meets at the Floyd Country Store and Handmade House. The students at the EcoVillage enjoy music classes, jam sessions, and various Appalachian enrichment activities, including arts and outdoors classes. These students have worked on yet another Crankie Box project, learned how to identify vegetables and medicinal herbs, tried fresh tomatoes, had play parties, and learned quite a few new tunes! Mac Traynham and George Slusher taught the students about the Floyd County Ramblers, Tim Thornton introduced the mountain dulcimer, and David Grimsley taught us how to make tagerphones! Gina Dilg continues to teach new square dancing and flatfoot dancing moves, and we’ve shared some Appalachian ghost stories in preparation for Halloween later this month!
The students at the Floyd Country Store and Handmade House have continued to learn a new tune each week, and started a small band performance activity. In addition to learning new content, this activity is cultivating a deeper knowledge of the tunes amongst the students, encouraging collaboration with their peers, and fostering communication — in addition to giving everyone a chance to play on the FCS Stage! We look forward to continuing this activity throughout the rest of the semester after our upcoming Community Day this week, and seeing just how much more we can learn (and how much fun we can have) in the coming weeks!
Enjoy these pictures from our semester so far:
