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Education
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CATSKILL MOUNTAIN LORE Environmental Education and Art Programs
EXPLORING THE TREASURES OF OUR MOUNTAINS |
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THE PROGRAMS:
Multi-disciplinary art and ecology workshops and residences are now available -- and they are door openers for young people to create. We believe when children are inspired, they learn. Based on Alf Evers’ pioneering children’s book on the environment, The Treasure of Watchdog Mountain The Story of a Mountain in the Catskills. the book and our programs show how a mountain represents a community of living things of animal and plant life to be treasured. Programs are tailor-made for individual classroom or library situations in association with the principal, classroom teacher and librarian. to fit curricula requirements and budgetary restrictions. There is a choice of content, schedule and discipline of visiting artist. Schedules accommodate single class segments or can run once a week or over several months. As we explore the history and life of the Catskill Mountains, activities deepen a youngster’s understanding of the treasures in their own backyards. Activities involve imaginative play, prose writing and poetry, storytelling and song writing, art, movement, role playing and theater games. Students might explore what it must have been like for an Indian and European boy to meet or paint the mountains and river scenery that means the most to them. We have conducted these programs at the Cahill Elementary School, Saugerties; Zena Elementary School, Woodstock; Roxbury Elementary School; Phoenicia Elementary School; Andes Central Elementary School; and John F. Kennedy School, Kingston. They are available through BOCES’ (Coser) programs and PTAs, and grants have also been provided by Kids in the Kaatskills. |
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EDUCATORS AND ARTISTS:
We have gathered together this community of talented artists and committed environmentalists to make the wonderful world of the Catskill Mountains come alive to young people:
Jill Olesker; storyteller- teacher
Andrea Cunliffe, director-actress
Christie Scheele, landscape painter and TREASURE illustrator
Bill Fiore, musician and teacher
Richard Parisio, environmental educator and poet
Jo Yanow-Schwartz, coordinator, editor of TREASURE OF WATCHDOG MOUNTAIN
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THEMES:
*The geologic creation of the Catskills *The inter-connectedness of animals and plants in the life cycle *The role of mountains in the global warming cycle *The meeting of Indians and Europeans, beaver skins and Trade *Glassmaking & tanning industries of the 1800’s *Fires, floods and erosion *The Hudson River School of Art *Water and water sheds *Early farm and village life *Morality lessons (as man learns he cannot cut down all the trees) *Leadership lessons (individuals and communities create legislation to keep the mountaintop ‘forever free’) |
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EARTH AND LIFE SCIENCES:
plate tectonics in formation of a mountain, eco systems -- plant and animal habitats, life cycles and adaptations, biodiversity, erosion and floods, water sheds, water pollution, fires, rocks and soil, human effect on the environment, global warming |
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SOCIAL STUDIES:
geography in building societies, Native American and European cultures (1600s-1800s), creating small industries (economics), significance of New York states location in development of nation |
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LANGUAGE ARTS:
comprehension and writing strategies, story telling, oral histories of Native Americans and early settlers, dramatic role playing, song-writing |
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LEADERSHIP SKILLS:
Working on environmental legislation, building community awareness |
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CULTURE AND THE ARTS:
Hudson River School of Painters representation of Catskill Mountain landscape in development of nations pride and development of art in America, sacred mountains |
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ABOUT ALF EVERS, author of Treasure of Watchdog Mountain:
Alf Evers was working on his book, KINGSTON: City on the Hudson, when he died in 2004 just 33 days shy of his 100th birthday. He was the only 99-year old author ever known to have been working on a book of that size. (It was published in 2005.) Among his 50 children\\\\\\\'s books, The House the Pecks Built is still in print as is his most famous adult book. the pivotal THE CATSKILLS: From Wilderness to Woodstock, still an important source for factual and anecdotal information on the area. He wrote numerous articles and was also a folklorist. Tireless in his environmental efforts, he served on the board of the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development and honorary chairman of the Save the Overlook Committee of the Woodstock Land Conservancy. The New York State History Association honored him for his work. |
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ABOUT MOUNTAINS:
---“Mountains are a fragile, high energy environment and a particularly sensitive indicator of global climatic change.” (Mountain Institute)
---“Going to the Mountains is gong home.” John Muir
---“Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” Henry David Thoreau
“Before the internet, telephone lines and television connected us, we shared the same air, the same oceans, and the same mountains. We are all equally responsible for protecting them.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus
---“Although we say that mountains belong to the country, actually they belong to those who love them.” Dogen
---Mountains comb moisture from the clouds and provide food and shelter to people, animals, and plants.
---When you climb a mountain you climb towards the clouds.
---From \"America the Beautiful\" by Katherine Lee Bates
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain.
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THE GOOD NEWS!
The forests on the summit of the Catskill Mountains will be kept “forever wild” because they are now part of the New York State Forest Preserve. Today, as in the past, they provide homes for thousands of wild things – insects, squirrels, bear, deer, beaver, coyotes, pheasants, turkeys, grouse, bobcats. Its living coat of trees and animals, and even its rocks -- the ‘bones’ of the Catskills -- cut down in fairly recent times have been saved through the vision of enlightened individuals.
Today there are forests of hemlock, pine, spruce, birch, wild cherry, chestnut and maple that didn’t exist 100 years ago. Streams run with trout, bass and other fish, and the Catskills are important biological corridors, supplying water to the entire region as well as to New York City.
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Treasure of Watchdog Mountain Illustrations
Illustrations copyright (c) 2006 Christie Scheele |
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