I volunteer Saturday afternoons to help with an eduction program for children with Autism in New York’s Chinatown.  It is run out of the Chinese Christian Herald Crusaders Church which is a subsidiary of the non profit organization Hope for New York.  The organization strives to serve immigrant families by providing them with a community center to connect with one another and a variety of social services.  Currently, there is work underway for a fundraiser in February, where proceeds will help support the center’s valuable activities throughout 2014.

For the event, I have choreographed three dances for my students to preform.  The kids have enthusiastically spent the last three months practicing our pieces over and over.  My dedication to this endeavor even went as far as to (embarrassingly) have Jay film me preforming the numbers in our apartment living room so that my students could practice them at home.  I am excited to see the outcome of all their hard work.

Now the next phase to conquer are the costumes.  The needs and abilities of my children vary from severe to moderate, and as such we have some students who want to take part but won’t be dancing as much as their peers.  Therefore, I am creating simple, sensory minded costumes for them to wear on stage to make them an equally vital part of the performance.  Each dance has a different costume and the first is bright, vibrant flowers for a hip hoppy, Cha Cha style piece.  The best part is that each of our three costume styles will be created for less than $2.50 a piece.  This is a fundraiser after all!

Continue reading “Teachable Moments: How to (cheaply) Make Large Flowers from Poster Board”