Outstanding performers teach traditional Appalachian, African-American, and Native American dances and “play party games,” involving patterns of singing, dancing, poetry, mimicry, and play-acting. Each program features step-by-step instructions as well as a complete student performance of the game or dance. An interview with the performer gives the historical and cultural contexts of the dance.

Dancing Threads gives young people a multicultural and historical perspective, encouraging them to value their own and other cultural traditions. Additional background information is provided in the extensive teacher’s guide.

Programs 2 and 3 of this series are available online in the KET EncycloMedia.

Program of Studies
Dance: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This series explores why people dance, the elements of dance, dance styles, dance in a multicultural and historical context, and dance as an art form. It uses performances, archival photographs and footage, and interviews to capture dance’s emotion and energy and to stimulate students’ interest, understanding, and appreciation.

A chaptered DVD version of DanceSense includes bonus video segments and classroom resources and is available in the KET Dance Arts Toolkit.

Program of Studies
Dance: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

The KET Arts Toolkits offer a wealth of teacher-tested materials for teaching the arts and for incorporating the arts across the curriculum. These multimedia kits contain video pieces, including segments from KET instructional programs as well as specially produced new material; CD-ROMs; lesson plans, glossaries, and classroom handouts; and many other resources—all tied to Kentucky’s Core Content in the arts.

Dance (2004); Visual Arts (2005); Drama (revised and expanded 2nd edition released in 2006); and Music toolkits are available now for purchase by Kentucky teachers.

The Drama Arts Toolkit includes the following materials:

• choice of four VHS tapes or two DVDs of KET video excerpts/programs
• a three-ring binder including lesson plans for primary, intermediate, middle, “Page to Stage” CD-ROM from Stage One
• an informational CD-ROM from the Kentucky Department of Education

The Visual Arts Toolkit includes the following materials:

• nearly 8 hours of video in VHS or DVD, with segments that feature artists at work, explore cultural connections, and take students on a tour of an art museum
• the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum CD-ROM, which brings together images of art collections across the state
• a 3-ring binder of lesson plans and information
• full color Purposes of Art poster

The Music Toolkit includes the following materials:

• 12 hours of video in DVD or VHS format
• Doorways to Music, a sampler of traditional music representing various cultures
• Music Through Time, music performances and commentary developed to correlate to selected music periods
• A World of Music CD-ROM, an interactive CD-ROM with additional video, audio files, images, information and activities
• a binder with K-12 lessons plans, glossaries, and notated music for some of the video selections.

The Dance Arts Toolkit includes the following materials:

• nearly eight hours of video, available in your choice of video or DVD format, including dance performances, cultural dances, and creative movement lessons
• the DanceSense Enhanced DVD, including the entire DanceSense series produced by KET along with a “History of Dance” video and additional video
• a three-ring binder of lesson plans and informational materials
• a full-color Dance Timeline poster
• an informational CD-ROM from the Kentucky Department of Education

The Arts Toolkit web site includes additional lesson plans, links to the Kentucky Arts Council Directory of Artists, and other resources.

The Arts Toolkit project is funded in part by awards from the W. Paul and Lucille Caudill Little Arts Endowment for KET, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Charles M. and Mary D. Grant Foundation, and the Federal Title VI Innovative Educational Strategies Program.

Program of Studies:
All Arts and Humanities disciplines: Structure in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

A writer, a composer, a conductor, and an audience of young people discuss character, setting, and conflict/resolution (common elements of both stories and compositions), and illustrate the creation of these elements through words and music. Featured are Kentucky writer George Ella Lyon reading from her books, the premiere of a work by composer Lawrence Dillon, and musical performances by young Kentucky musicians.

Program of Studies:
Reading: Forming a Foundation, Developing an Initial Understanding
Arts and Humanities: Structure in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts, Humanity in the Arts
Writing: Writing Structure, Writing Content, Writing Conventions, Writing Process

This production is a multicultural exploration of the way winter is celebrated in this country and how these celebrations have been changed, merged, assimilated, or forgotten over generations. Artists from across the country explain the traditions associated with their cultures through music and stories. The holiday traditions featured are Hanukkah (Jewish), Kwanzaa (African-American), Posadas (Chicano), and European Christmas.

The World’s Largest Concert is a national celebration of music in our schools. K-6 students and their teachers practice selected numbers throughout the year, and the broadcast connects these students from across the country in one simultaneous sing-along performance.

The program is produced by the Music Educators National Conference to launch Music in Our Schools Month.

This KET-produced instructional series introduces children to a broad range of music — folk, blues, Cajun, traditional — and cultures — Native American, African-American, and Appalachian, among others. All lyrics are in the teacher’s guide, inviting children to sing along. The series also introduces a variety of traditional instruments, such as the hammer dulcimer, the lap dulcimer, and the jaw harp.

Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

This production sets the poetry of Kentucky writer and farmer Wendell Berry to music by Malcolm Dalglish. A chorus of young people sing about a deep love for the Earth and the people and creatures who inhabit it. Both the poetry and the combination of words and music offer a wealth of opportunities for classroom discussion about the creation and function of art. The performance features the Bloomington Youth Chorus, the Lexington Children’s Chorus, The Anglicantors, Dalglish (on hammer dulcimer), and Glen Velez (percussion).

Program of Studies:
Music: Humanity in the Arts

This series introduces students and teachers to the elements of jazz, its history and pioneers, its instruments, and its contribution to American life and culture. The host is Richard Davis, a mainstay of the New York jazz scene and a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davis intersperses lecture segments with questions from the KET viewing audience, samples of work by jazz masters, and demonstrations of key jazz elements on his string bass. In addition to music, each program in the series addresses topics in social studies, humanities, and African-American studies.

The first four programs in this series aired as live teleconferences during the 1997/98 school year.

Program of Studies:
Music: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Purposes for Creating the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Stage One, Louisville’s professional theater for young people, presents an adaptation of Kenneth Grahame’s classic children’s book The Wind in the Willows for the stage. In this version, the irrepressible Toad is taught again and again that “animals who go rushing around too fast get into lots of trouble.” But that doesn’t stop him from pursuing his latest fancy, the glorious automobile! Despite the efforts of practical Rat, fickle Otter, ingenious Mole, and sage Badger, modernization begins to intrude upon their tranquil country life.

Little do the animals realize that there is an even worse threat lurking in the shadows. With their attention diverted to Toad’s mishaps, they are caught off guard by the malicious Weasels. Having captured poor Mole and seized that monument of grandeur, Toad Hall, the Weasels can be defeated only if the friends—including Toad—all band together.

This 1989 KET production includes a short introductory segment that explores how the stage version is transformed into a television program.

This play by Stage One, Louisville’s Children's Theatre, is set during America’s westward expansion. The heroine is a young girl who longs to escape farm life. Instead of doing chores, she hides in the woods with her rag doll and her imagination. There she meets an American hero named John Chapman—better known as Appleseed John.

Appleseed John is a 2001 KET production. The teacher’s guide provides information on how to use the play to address the Big Ideas in the Kentucky Program of Studies and to enrich students’ viewing of a professional theatrical production. It can easily be viewed in segments for classroom use.

Program of Studies:
Drama/Theater: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts

Program of Studies:
Visual Arts: Structure in the Arts, Humanity in the Arts, Processes in the Arts, Interrelationships Among the Arts