Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens provides visitors with an immersive connection to the calming and restorative power of plants. Through our living collections and imaginative programming, we create memorable experiences that inspire curiosity about our natural world. The Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens welcomes everyone to engage with our gardens, historic conservatory, and each other. The Botanical Gardens' Education Team offers a number of fun and engaging hands-on field trips for students in grades Pre-K-12.

New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Kate Messner visits schools and libraries around the world to get kids excited about reading, research, and writing stories of their own. She offers large-group interactive assemblies focusing on the research and writing process behind her award-winning books as well as smaller-group writing workshops with a variety of focuses, from character and story development to mystery writing to researching and writing historical fiction and nonfiction. Kate is also a former middle school ELA teacher who earned National Board Certification in 2006 and provides staff development focused on engaging readers, teaching writing, and getting students excited about research and revision. She can be reached via the contact form on her website www.katemessner.com or by filling out her author appearance request form: https://forms.gle/nePpZY7on36gBozN9

We teach and perform a wide range of classical, folk, and Bollywood dance styles at school, at work, at the musem and anywhere! Ajna’s programs celebrate diversity and foster cultural inclusion for people of all ages and backgrounds.

Kate Klise wrote her first book when she was ten years old, so she speaks with a certain authority when she encourages children to begin their writing careers now. With more than thirty books to her credit (picture books, early readers, middle grade novels, and one YA title), Kate relates well to students of all ages. When working with early readers (grades K-2, 30 minutes), Kate offers gentle advice about writing stories and invites students to create an original story on the spot. When presenting to older students (grades 3–6, 50 minutes), Kate focuses on the writing process: where she gets her ideas, how she writes her rough drafts, why the art of rewriting is so critical, and—yes!—how she comes up with all those punny names in the Regarding and 43 Old Cemetery Road series. In addition, Kate explains the classic elements of storytelling, including the importance of sending characters on journeys. In addition to large-group presentations, Kate also offers fiction and non-fiction writing workshops for smaller groups (30 students or less, 50 minutes). As a 15-year veteran for People magazine, Kate enjoys sharing her tips and tricks for writing on deadline. Over the years she’s taught countless students how to write colorful, compelling, and often hilarious People magazine-style stories about themselves and others.

Goat on a Boat is a nonprofit puppet theater that has been building, performing and presenting a variety of puppet shows for young children and their grown-ups since 2001. Shows can fit into classrooms, auditoriums or can be performed outdoors from our Puppet Truck stage. Using a variety of puppetry styles, our shows are based on well-loved classics as well as original stories about friendship, the environment and more. Puppet making workshops provide the opportunity for young students to improvise their own stories, to work together to create characters, build sets, stages and puppets. At the end of each workshop, there is short performance where students can share what they've made. Our residencies provide the time and space to create longer, themed shows that can connect to STEM classroom learning objectives. Goat on a Boat also offers Professional Development workshops that teach educators how to make a variety of puppet projects to use in the classroom as well as how to manipulate and how to make their puppets come to life. We believe that Puppetry is the gateway to a life-long love of Theater and the Performing Arts. This unique art form brings Art to life and engages children's imaginations in so many valuable ways.

High-energy 45-minute assembly programs about bullying-prevention, character education, reading, and science. Who knew LEARNING could be this much FUN?!

Educational Market Best-Selling Author and TEDx speaker Jermiko Thomas delivers engaging literacy and social-emotional learning programs through the Adventures of Walter series. Programs support literacy development, STEM curiosity, SEL skills, bullying prevention, autism inclusion, and positive character development through interactive storytelling and classroom engagement. The Adventures of Walter collection also includes student learning resources such as activity workbooks, coloring books, and an American Sign Language (ASL) Alphabet & Numbers workbook, helping reinforce literacy, creativity, and inclusive learning. Jermiko’s programs are inspired by his personal journey — he did not speak until age six and first communicated through sign language, making his work especially meaningful for students with diverse learning and communication needs. Programs are designed for elementary schools (Pre-K–5) and can be delivered as assemblies, classroom workshops, literacy events, STEM enrichment sessions, and special education programming.

Please take a moment to consider my StoryFaces and Talking Art assembly programs for schools, a unique presentation of storytelling and visual arts with a variety of content for grades K - 12, family audiences and events. Christopher Agostino’s StoryFaces is a fusion of language and visual arts, an exciting storytelling show in which volunteers are face painted to illustrate the stories as I tell them, captivating the audience with traditional folktales and my uniquely animated original stories like The Amazing Face Story and The Amazing Face Story Activity, a follow-up activity in which students create an original story starring themselves — including Talking Art programs focusing on art history for upper grades — and programs for adults and family audiences. Assembly Programs are available for grade levels K - 12, with variable content for different grade levels. For middle and upper grade levels the performances also include cultural information on the use and significance of masks and makeup. Performances run 45 - 60 minutes, and work best for an audience of 250 students or less. In most shows I paint 8 to 12 volunteers during the performance, while mesmerizing the entire audience with stories ranging from traditional tales like Aesop’s Fables to legendary adventures like Punia and the King of the Sharks, The Tail of the Dragon and the samurai hero tale Raiko vs. the Goblin Spider, plus my original stories such as The Tiger that Went to the House of the Sun, When A Man First Met a Crocodile and in my Talking Arts programs, stories about art -- origins, inspirations and appropriations -- such as my mask design demonstration: Two Lizards on Four Faces, and Picasso the Thief and the birth of Modern Art.

The Shadow Box Theatre’s (SBT) mission is to touch the minds and hearts of children through shadow and three-dimensional puppet-based theatre arts. SBT's programs encourage creative exploration, celebrate diversity, and teach humanistic values such as how to deal with bullying and respecting individual differences, peaceful solutions, and appreciation of our earth. This is accomplished through an integrated program of performances given in our spaces and brought to your space, creative theatre arts workshops for children, teachers, and parents, and picture books with companion audio, as well as films and audio recordings based on our musical puppet productions.

The Fredonia School of Music offers a diverse range of offerings for middle and high school students, including workshops and performances in classical, jazz, world music, and more. Faculty and faculty/student ensembles are available for performances and hands-on workshops, as well as introductory sessions in composition, music education, music therapy, ensemble performances, technique, musicianship, musicianship wellness & performance anxiety, and more. We are happy to discuss individual school interests to develop customized offerings, as well. Freodnia's faculty and alumni are GRAMMY and Tony Award winners, year after year. We look forward to collaborating with you and your students. (note the video link is to last weekend's performance of the Fredonia College Symphony with Concerto Competition winners Aaron and Boaz Mecham, piano).

I offer an interactive, hilarious juggling show for all ages that has been proven successful for the last 25 years in the continental USA as well as many other countries. You see !

We are offering three different shows to bring to students that are friendly for the whole family! PACKRAT: Set deep in the Sagebrush Desert, PACKRAT is a visually stunning puppet-forward play that contemplates humanity’s relationship with the natural world. Puppetry, projections and an original score elegantly come together to create many layers of meaning and emotions. At the center of the action is Bud, a peculiar rodent with a penchant for hoarding humankind’s goods. When a discarded cigar sparks a wild fire, the animals in Bud’s valley flee for their lives. Already an outcast among the desert animals for his hoarding instincts, he gets blamed for the human-made disasters infiltrating their lives. When they ban him from the community, Bud must set out alone amidst a raging fire, to confront human-made dangers and a few natural ones. PACKRAT is a poignant account of Bud’s journey to find his place in the world, and his ultimate realization that the interconnectedness of life rules the day. GEPPETTO: EXTRAORDINARY EXTREMITIES is a tale of resilience and adaptation that tells the story of puppet-maker Geppetto, who is attempting to perform — all by himself for the first time ever — the grand mythical love story of Perseus, who slays a sea monster to save his beloved Andromeda. During the show things begin to go haywire, and Geppetto finds himself desperately improvising to overcome the challenges of performing solo while at the same time scrambling to devise new story lines, new characters, and even new limbs. GEPPETTO was inspired by a NPR story on Hugh Herr, whose legs were amputated after a climbing accident and who now designs technologically advanced artificial limbs. GEPPETTO opened Off-Broadway 2014 at SoHo Playhouse, has had a 7-City Northern Italy Tour, performances in Italian and a Costa Rica Tour, performances in Spanish. GEPPETTO has toured extensively in USA. 2017, GEPPETTO toured South Korea and 2018: Canal Café Theatre, London; SUNY Orange, Newburgh; NYS Puppetry Festival, Perry. ERNIE'S SECRET LIFE is an episodic odyssey, fusing ever-changing puppetry and stagecraft with humor, music, and a raw understanding of our profound collective reality. Sparked by the isolation and turmoil of our time, ERNIE'S SECRET LIFE is a story of discovery for all. A man fearing something has happened to his son, builds a canoe and secretly sets off to find him. What he finds instead – is himself. Powered by a wondrous landscape-in-motion, the play is about escaping and then finding your way… a celebration of how we become who we want to be. Concrete Temple Theatre offers a variety of workshops to accompany our performances. Subjects covered can include performance skills, theatrical adaptation, puppet construction, and storytelling. The work students create will play as a prelude to our performances. Workshops can be tailored to your needs, ranging from an hour-long exploration to a week long intensive. Please inquire to specify desired content, length and price.