The Pagosa Center for the Arts was flooded with more than 200 people, ready to be entertained by Pagosa Peak Open School students who worked all semester on creating a seasonal variety show for the community.
PPOS Creatives Advisor Rain March organized, facilitated, planned and prepared the show; the school’s third year of presenting The Snow Show. This was the first year the school presented at the Pagosa Center for the Arts, after the community feedback from the previous year included a need for a bigger space.
PPOS was grateful to have the Moore family agree to letting the K-8 school use the theatre space, which elevated the performance and provided the students with a professional, authentic setting for their celebration of learning.
Every student was represented in the Snow Show, and presented their learning around the Colorado music and drama standards that align with each grade level. Students acted in musicals and plays, sang songs, and played instruments like recorders, ocerenas, guitars, drums and xylophones.
Bits of humor were sprinkled throughout the 45 minute show while the audience ate homemade gingerbread men cookies and drank hot chocolate. A rendition of “Cinderella” included the evil step-mother demanding organic vegetables from the store used to cook her meal, and the prince offering Cinderella a job with a 401k. The first-grade chickens and turkeys in the “Gingerbread Man” pecked at each other and bobbled around while the animals chased their cookie prey. The Grinch dramatically snuck around the middle-schoolers, stealing their props and running off.
The show ended with a whole-school sing-a-long of “Let it Snow” that included audience participation.
“It was magical,” said kindergarten advisor Maggie Saunders.
Students shared the sentiment.
“I loved it in that theatre and so did my mom,” said first-grader Zaiden, who played a turtle in the “Gingerbread Man” musical. “She was so proud of me, and I was proud of me, too!”
Pagosa Peak Open School is a K-8 district charter school focused on implementing a project-based learning (PBL) curriculum in a Restorative Practices environment. Authentic audiences and settings where students share their learning is foundational to project-based learning.