AUBURN – January and February have been busy months for the artist residency program of L/A Arts. The Twin Cities’ local arts agency arranges for at least one artist residency in each Auburn and Lewiston public elementary school every academic year.

Three programs have recently been completed.

Dancer and creative force behind Art Moves Dance Studio in Norway, Debi Irons completed a four-day residency with second-grade students at Fairview Elementary School.

Irons spent time in each classroom, teaching students basic Jamaican dance moves. Sessions began with warm-up exercises to get students comfortable with moving. Along with dance instruction, Irons encourages kids to have fun moving and to be creative in their expression. Irons’ overall goal is for students to experience the joy of expressing themselves through dance.

Maine-based children’s author Lynn Plourde worked with third-grade students at Pettingill Elementary School in Lewiston on writing combination fiction/nonfiction stories.

Using her book “Dino Pets” as a model, students wrote fictional stories about bringing home animals from a chosen habitat (i.e. rain forest, ocean, desert). Next students researched the animals and finally recorded factual information along with the fictional story.

The third residency was a songwriting workshop with singer songwriter Martin Swinger at Washburn Elementary School for the kindergarten and first-grade students.

Swinger guided students through basic songwriting skills such as rhyme and meter and worked with each class to develop mnemonic device songs that would assist the students with a subject they were discussing.

For example, students in one class are studying penguins. Swinger asked the children for facts about penguins, then worked that information into a piece to the tune of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”

Upcoming L/A Arts school residencies include Plourde at Elm Street School in Mechanic Falls throughout February as well as at Montello Elementary School in Lewiston in April and May; actor/educator Andrew Harris working with second-graders in Readers Theatre at Fairview Elementary in March and April; children’s nonfiction author Margy Burns Knight and illustrator Anne Sibley O’Brien working with Martel Elementary School students in Lewiston in March and April; and Portland’s poet laureate, Martin Steingesser, working with fourth-grade students at McMahon Elementary School in Lewiston in April and May.

Artist residencies are made possible through the support of the school systems of Auburn and Lewiston with additional funding by local businesses. To learn more about the residencies and other programs offered by L/A Arts, visit www.laarts.org or at the downtown Lewiston office at 221 Lisbon St.