Wings of a Feather with Constant Wonder at the Eric Carle Museum

If you’re a parent or a teacher looking for music to supplement a nature based curriculum at school, or would like to get your kids more engaged in learning about the world around them, Grammy selected Constant Wonder has your name written all over it. Connie Gilles, a songwriter/teacher, and Alice Weiser, a dancer/singer/actress, are both from New York and love to teach facts and reverence for animals, insects and nature through both their music and interactive, on-stage performances.

My daughter and I met up with Connie and Alice on their most recent visit to our area. They stopped into the studio on Saturday (08/25/07) to do a guest DJ set with us, preceding their performance Wings of a Feather at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Arts. (Click here to listen.)

The three of them hit it off famously. They loved listening to all of my daugher’s stories about insects and pets. They had her singing along and interacting with songs they perform live in the studio. And sharing their new treasures with her, she got a kick out of peacock feathers, an ostrich egg, and an emerald green emu egg they brought with them, presented by the folks at the Starlight Llama Solar B&B and Llama Farm in Florence, MA.

Following their guest DJ set, my daughter and I headed over to the Eric Carle Museum to see their live interactive performance. Their name, Constant Wonder, celebrates the wonder children have about the lives of animals and insects. The duo was a delight and very engaging with the audience. They performed several songs that drew on the theme of their show Wings of a Feather, including “Make A Wish,” “Ladybug,” “From Fluff to Feathers,” ”
Sometimes It’s Tough To Be a Bee,” “Magnificent,” and “Save Me, I’m Your Earth.”

The centerpiece of their performance is the Constant Wonder “Wonder Trunk.” It’s a very large tree trunk that they open up before each song after the audience shouts out, “Constant Wonder!” Inside the trunk are props they use to introduce the audience to the educational message of their next song. At this past Saturday’s show they pulled out ladybug wings, their new emu and ostrich eggs, peacock feathers, a honey bee costume, a large honey comb, a caterpillar and butterfly wings.

The show opened with their theme song “Constant Wonder” and then invited the kids in the audience to come up on stage. With fingers to their temples they were asked to think about how their favorite animal or insect might move about. Then on the count of three, twenty kids, hopped, slithered, flew and dove into imaginary waves before singing “Make A Wish.” (Click here to see video.)

Several time kids in the audience were invited back up on stage to participate. Children curled up on stage as if they were baby chicks inside of an egg. They wriggled their way out of their shell, walked around the stage peeping like chicks, and then grew wings and flew around the stage as owls. And as always their song, “Fluff to Feathers,” drove home the learning experience with engaging lyrics and music.

Whether the kids on stage were pretending to be dead lady bugs or Signing the lyrics to “Save Me, I’m The Earth,” each song engaged the audience though movement, followed by a song. It’s a formula that is very successful when teaching children through music and performance. Put this formula in the hands of two energetic, inspired and talented teachers and you have real winner.

To learn more about Constant Wonder visit them on-line at www.constantwonder.com.

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