Inside this classroom, a future Mozart, Beethoven, or Bach could be at work.
"It's just so fun to just keep playing and practicing and to show people."
Kids like 8 year old Angela White have been playing instruments for just months.
It's part of Caitlin Art Magnet's focus on the arts.
The magnet school in ops offers choral and chime choirs, violin, drama, theater field trips, and an array of visual arts including painting and sculpture give students many opportunities to develop an appreciation for the arts.
It's part of the core curriculum starting in second grade.
"A lot of the learning is happening outside of the classroom as well. Omaha public schools and other school districts in the area have partnered with community organizations to learn about the arts, including the holland center here"
Last year, three Omaha public schools, Harrison, Walnut hill, and Gilder Elementary were pilots for this Carnegie Hall Program.
Brought to the area by Omaha performing Arts.
This concert is the culmination of a semester of work. It started with teachers learning songs and dances.
Then, teaching them to their students.
"They all need to feel it. We all learn in different ways so we give them movement, we let them draw in the curriculum we have them singing so it gives a buy in for every type of learner and every kid,” said Shanna Whitney of Carnegie Hall.
Just as it takes more than one way to teach the arts, there's more than one way the arts overlap with other lessons. Magdelyna Garcia runs the Museo Latino in South Omaha.
Since 1993, multiculturalism is a curriculum mandate in the state of Nebraska. Before students went back to school, area teachers attended arts training here.
"Art encompasses many other subjects, besides language and social studies. And history and math if you can believe that,” she said.
So as another new school year starts, a variety of programs and classes loom. Maybe they'll result in the next Mozart. But at the very least, they'll lead to a varied way of learning.
