Wiz-ardry School for Kids during Winter Recess
Amy Grant, Director and Owner of Peninsula Metamorphic reported an enthusiastic turn out

Blue Hill-Peninsula Metamorphic Arts and Learning theater group held its first school vacation week program at The Bay School’s Emlen Hall. The third to eighth grade students who chose to attend the week long camp entered into a magical world where they learned that dragons answer to riddles and that in order to survive in their new environment.

The game: to solve the mystery created by the ‘Headmistress” on the second day, while attending classes designed to stretch the imagination. Students learn to answer riddles written to help them ‘find Nelly’ the missing dragon. On the very first day students were introduced to ‘the rules’ of the road. Due to the program’s flexible nature, Grant noted that “the children’s ideas were allowed space to push the drama forward and improv was used throughout the week. Each day they studied a new culture.” During a time called ‘The History of Magic’, students learned about the history of the Greeks, Romans, the British Isles, China and Egypt, as well as the mythology and folklore encompassing these regions.

Throughout the week, teachers and participatory members from the community were assigned characters and duties. These folks came dressed in costume and provided students with clues and information designed to push the mystery forward. Some came to be drawn by students during art time. The art teacher enjoyed teaching the kids to experiment with clay, acrylic, water color and even Chinese brush painting, while the Chemistry teacher demonstrated just how much fun it can be to make a brilliant snake egg and troll tear potions…or did he? Actually, report has it that the experiment went terribly wrong and the whole thing exploded! In any event, at the end of the week the children were able to locate ‘Nelly’. She was found hanging out in the Coliseum in Rome. The question being: how long did it take for her to get there?

Director and owner Amy Grant and Penny Ricker began planning the school vacation event back in July; both women wanted to leave room for improv and surprise as the week evolved. The goal: to integrate work and play into the fabric of each lesson, while teaching the children about world geography, chemistry, art and literature. The Wiz-ardy event hosted at The Bay School’s Emlen Hall drew in students from all around the peninsula. The students who attended the week long camp entered into a magical world, a world created by Grant and a group of three teachers and two counselors design to encourage them to truly enjoy the process of learning. “Mastery wasn’t the goal, Grant expressed the goal was fun”.

When asked Grant stated that all of the characters involved in her recent camp were originals; however, she admitted that the world that they created could be one where Harry Potter could enter in at any minute as it was a magical world. The costumes designed by Melissa Rioux (one of the event organizers and teachers) added to this atmosphere and the well-constructed set and props provided a sense of place and depth for the characters to draw from as students enjoyed all the resources made available to them throughout the day.

At the end of each day, students enjoyed time to work on the group Newspaper, Yearbook or Show Choir. On the last day, the group held an open house for the public. The choir performed and the children gathered their mystical materials to take home. Wondering now what’s next for Peninsula Metamorphic Arts and Learning. Contact Amy Grant at (207) 479-6382 or go to her webpage http://penninsulametamorphic.