The Dragon: What inspired you to have the winter program? Ms. Kennedy: “Well, actually the winter program was already a tradition at CAIS when I came here sixteen years ago. But it was very different. The music teacher didn’t do the winter program. The classroom teachers (there was only one class per grade) would teach the kids one English song and one Chinese song. And they would all walk up, and line up, and sing the English song, and the Chinese song, and walk off. The next group would come up and sing their English song and Chinese song, and walk off. When I came, I wanted to add dancing, because I have a lot of dance background. It just kind of started simple like the only costumes were only like a red headscarf, and then the costumes became more and more involved. I also saw that the kids and parents really enjoyed the performances that were more like stories. But they weren’t all stories, sometimes they were just poems, or sometimes we just did a theme, like winter traditions.”
After this interview, we thought we had an understanding of how the winter program actually works. This year, we think that the program went really well. I really think the parents enjoyed it. We enjoyed seeing all the grades perform, we hope next year’s program is equally creative. A special thank you from Picabo Mellquist, Elaine Jutamulia, and Zoe Barros O’Haren to Ms. Susan Kennedy and her lovely helper, Ms. Amanda Cruz.