Field Trip to the Queen Mary in Long Beach

On August 25th, 2008, Monday, we went on a field trip to the Queen Mary in Long Beach California. It was a perfect day for a field trip to the water. The boat is amazing and huge! Did you know that the Queen Mary is TWICE the size that the Titanic was? Well it's true. We were able to go on a guided tour of the ship and we learned a lot about her. One of our favorite places on the ship was the 'Winston Churchill' suite. It was very big and had great closets! The wood in the ship is just beautiful. The tour guide told us that there were over 50 different types of wood used in the interior of the ship. Here are some photos of us on our field trip. One is of Jim standing in front of the Queen Mary, another is of Cathy and Paul in front of an English phone booth and there is a wonderful photo of Jim, Cesar, Michael and Darren getting ready go up the gang way into the ship. You can see what a beautiful sunny day it was. After visiting the ship we went to a picnic area near The Aquarium of the Pacific for lunch. We were right by the water and were able to watch harbor cruise boats and pelicans come and go. It was a great day.

You Are Invited To A CD Release Party!

You won't want to miss this event. We are hosting a CD Release Party at Steamers Jazz Cafe in Fullerton California to celebrate the completion of the newest Hi Hopes CD. This CD features Paul Kuehn a lead singer in the band. Paul is a musical savant, he is blind and developmentally disabled. Paul was selected for feature on this CD, not only because of his vocal talents, but because he is the reason the band was formed and the Hi Hopes program was developed. This year the band celebrates it's 36th anniversary.
You are invited to attend this exciting event on Saturday, August 16th, at 2:00pm. You will hear Paul and the Hi Hopes perform music from their new CD. Copies of the CD will be for sale, along with other Hi Hopes merchandise. Admission is $5.00 at the door. Funds raised at this event will go to support Hope University.
Steamers Jazz Cafe is located at:
138 W. Commonwealth in Fullerton CA. www.steamersjazz.com
You can contact Hope University for more information (714) 778-4440

Music and Learning

On Tuesday, March 4th, we had a visit from Terrance Laine of Creative Percussion from the Orange County Performing Arts Center. Terrance has many different percussion instruments, several are from around the world and many he has made himself. As he played them he showed us how to make different sounds with each one and gave us fun ideas for making our own percussion instruments. He surprised us with the objects he used to make music, such as an animal jaw bone and a dogs water dish! Several of the students were able to participate on stage and try their hand at creating music through percussion. We learned a lot from Terrance, you can see Cindy H. and Jason R. on stage with him using an interesting instrument made from a gardening tine. Ron L's face says it all as he joins in with his special Alaskan drum.

Art!

Here is an example of one of our students art work. April R. loves color and uses them in this acrylic on canvas to express her vibrant nature. Also we have another student, Ben S. working on a piece in colored pencil. He just could not hold back that smile. All of the students are looking forward to the Valentine's Day party and dance tomorrow.