LANSING, Mich. — Explaining to young kids why they can't play with their friends or go back to school is something parents and teachers worry about. Chris Conte shows us one elementary class that found a way to stay connected through all the pressures of coronavirus and do something that brought smiles to kids' faces and tears to their parents' eyes.
An unfamiliar silence has been lingering in the halls of schools across the country. Schools absent of students long before summer vacation began.
Reed Clapp, a third grade teacher told us "I wake up to check my email to see who has questions." This after months of working from home and through this he has learned he doesn't need a classroom to keep his lesson plans on schedule
It's about this time in the year that Mr. Clapp and his students at Madison Creek Elementary School in Tennessee would be preparing for their end of the year show.
Gramarella is known far and wide across the district. Every third-grade kid wants to be in it. Typically this satirical Cinderella based show about grammar would be performed in the library. But because of the virus, that stage went dark.
Like so many teachers across the country Mr. Clapp felt like he had the rug pulled out from under him. But that's when it hit him … a new show, called Zoomarella.
He threw out the old script and started from scratch. Even had the kids audition for their parts on Zoom.
Costumes were handed out in a socially distant manner this year.
As Reed explained "It really has been one of the biggest challenged I've attempted."
Online rehearsals have come with their fair share of challenges.
But as the end of the schools year approached things started coming together.
"Instead of saying we won't have a play this year we're saying how can we do something that is original and is something they're proud of."
As for these eight and nine-year-olds rehearsals, have offered structure.
A way to manage the pressure of this pandemic, they don't feel as isolated.
"The stuff that has been the hardest is getting facial expressions, and acting with your body"
The kids have been learning too.
Nine-year-old plays interrogative in the play.
She can only talk in questions.
"How am I going to get into the Zoom room without a link or password?"
Reed says "Yes they're eight years old but what we want when we say we need light, we're saying what can you do to put light behind you?"
After weeks of trial and error, they pulled of a final performance and streamed it across the internet.
Mr. Clapp couldn't have been prouder.
Who knew that a bunch of third graders could show the world that even in the middle of a pandemic the show can go on.
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