Kris Kiko Cozy is a teaching artist based in Canton, Ohio. Her classes combine visual arts, music, movement, mindfulness practice, story-telling, and performance. In order to stay in touch and engaged with her students during the school closure she (with the help of her tech savvy husband) set up a YouTube channel.

This set of videos is about signs of spring, and daffodils in particular. In Part 1, we explore and observe signs of spring and daffodils, followed by a guided drawing of daffodils and hearing the beginning of a daffodil poem by William Wordsworth.

I wandered Lonely as a Cloud by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o’er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Click here to visit the Poetry Foundation where you can listen to this poem.

In Part 2, we notice how the flowers have opened even more overnight, revisit the daffodil picture to add finishing touches, review and demonstrate more slowly the shading and color techniques we used both in colored pencil and crayon, and hear the entire poem.

I am very excited for the students to actually see what inspires the activities I bring to the classroom, and to share more directly my love of nature and the arts and how they are interconnected.