May 2010 Newsletter

Greetings from Flow Circus
Make Waves/Make Money - Winners Announced
Summer Reading Program Promotional Materials Available
Skill Toy Workshops Customized for Global Studies Project
First Friday Chamber Networking Event
Start Your Fall Planning

Skill Toy Residency at Newcomer Center

This year we returned to the Chapel Hill High School’s Newcomer Center to conduct a Skill Toy residency. The center provides middle school ESL students with a smaller classroom environment to help with the transition to US language and culture. The majority of the students are refugees from Burma and have spent time in Thai refugee camps before coming to the US. The residency is coordinated by the Durham Arts Council.

Over the course of six visits we introduced juggling, flower sticks, Japanese kendama, spinning plates, diabolo, yo-yo, jitter ring, and footbag. Visit the Flow Circus photo gallery to see more pictures of the students using the different skill toys.

The students also introduced us to two common games from their cultures. The first involved a wicker ball called the chelo that gets kicked. The other is a rope game that involves a variety of intricate jumps over an ever-rising rope. We always  enjoy learning about new games!