Meet Dott! Like the Polkadot! And her talking dog Dusty, like the dust! Their mission is to foster the voice and imagination of the next generation. Dusty & Dott are committed to creating an environment that is welcoming and supportive of all identities. Through storytelling and the magic of puppetry, Dusty & Dott celebrate curiosity and encourage the values of creative play.

I am a children’s book author and illustrator who loves to visit and interact with my readers! I talk about the book making process with a slides presentation of the making of my latest picture book, and hold a story brainstorming session where the students are the authors and I am the illustrator and we create a story together. You can read more about my school/library visits on my website. There’s also testimonials from teachers I’ve worked with!

Join my nature adventures from childhood family trips to hiking with my own children, exploring Israel. We'll read the story A FEATHER, A PEBBLE, A SHELL (Kar-Ben Publishing, 2024) and discover some behind-the-scenes secrets from the work process on the story and illustrations. We'll find out what makes the tiny country of Israel one of the most diverse places in the world with mountains, rivers, forests, beaches, dry deserts, tropical reefs and more! I'm traveling to the USA for a book tour during the month of November and would love to visit your school in person. I live in Israel, so on any other month, I would be happy to visit your school virtually. During my visit in November, I also offer art workshop, in which we will create Israel's national bird, the hoopoe, using cut colored papers and oil pastels, demonstrating how this beautiful bird can open and close its feathered crown! I can be reached by email: miri@mirileshem.com or phone: +972-152-871-5525

Fun With Energy The science of energy is as fun as it gets! Jeff Boyer shows kids that energy is what makes our world work, through carefully laid out activities illustrating the laws and forces which govern the world around us. Jeff takes audiences on an exciting energy filled ride they’ll always remember. He brings kids right up on stage for interactive demonstrations that entertain and amaze! See also Fun With Energy Curriculum Guides Available Fun With Energy Media Kit Available

Created to serve school districts, college, libraries, and theaters across Upstate New York, CNY Jazz Management is dedicated to the educational mission of the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation, the region’s primary provider of jazz programming in concert, cabaret, scholastic and festival settings in schools and in public. Our core cultural history shows are available separately or in a group: All That Jazz, a whirlwind history of jazz; Blues Shout, a history of male blues and jazz singers of the 20th Century; Music & Musket, exploring the role of the musician in the Civil War; and Jazz On Demand, unlocking the secrets of songwriting and listening creatively! All programs are narrated and include a vocabulary/teacher’s guide. We also offer full-day or multi-day residencies by all of our large ensembles, with or without national guest soloist/teaching artists, co-designed with you to fit your program needs – clinics, jams, and grand concerts. you may preview all of our shows and watch an overview of our entire arts-in-education service at the video link on our web site. Contact us for more information about presenting any of our offerings in your school!

Jermiko Thomas is an Educational Market Best-Selling Author, TEDx Speaker, and creator of the national and international award-winning Adventures of Walter children’s series. His books promote Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), STEM education, inclusion, friendship, bullying prevention, and autism awareness. Through Cornhill Publishing, he offers K–5 author visits, SEL workshops, STEM demonstrations, read-alouds, writing sessions, audiobook + ASL integration, activity sheets, and curriculum-aligned programming used in schools, BOCES systems, and libraries across Central New York and beyond. Programs support UDL, special education, deaf & hard-of-hearing communities, and general education classrooms. Jermiko Thomas is an Educational Market Best-Selling Author, TEDx Speaker, and creator of the national and international award-winning Adventures of Walter children’s series. His books are known for their engaging, uplifting, and award-winning rhyming storytelling style that helps children connect deeply with themes of Social-Emotional Learning (SEL), STEM, friendship, kindness, bullying prevention, autism awareness, and inclusion. He offers K–5 author visits, classroom presentations, interactive SEL/STEM workshops, ASL-integrated sessions, writing residencies, multimedia storytelling assemblies, and teacher professional development, all aligned with literacy standards, UDL principles, special education needs, and district SEL frameworks. Jermiko has been featured on TEDx, WSYR Bridge Street, WKTV, TALK! 100.7 FM, the Rome Sentinel, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, MVCC, and has delivered programs across numerous school districts. His work is officially verified as an Educational Market Best-Selling Author through Ingram Content Group distribution, and his books are placed in public and elementary school libraries across New York State. His mission is to inspire young learners through creativity, resilience, imagination, and the power of reading—proving that big dreams can grow from any community.

Unleash your inner scientist in these large, interactive science shows! Nutty Scientists Hudson Valley brings affordable and fun science shows to your school – designed to ignite children’s curiosity and foster an environment where the entire audience feels encouraged to participate. Each show has an imaginative storyline coupled with 6-8 hands-on exciting experiments. With Nutty Scientists, kids get to touch, jump, yell, vibrate, form and test hypotheses. We aim to boost children’s curiosity about science and confidence in themselves! Age: 4-12 Length: 45 minutes Size: Suitable for up to 200 kids, but we do back-to-back performances for more. Prices: $375 for one show or $300/show for 2 or more shows + travel fee (call for info). Funding can be used from BOCES Arts and Education category OR the Exploratory Enrichment category. Shows: Ice Age Show: The kids will help our scientist overcome incredible challenges within the secret forest of Merlin the Wizard by performing exciting experiments. Students will be immersed in a sensory experience surrounding the amazing properties of CO2 and dry ice while exploring states of matter, sublimation, chemical reactions, pressure, forces, and more. Cast Away Show: Help our Nutty Scientist who is lost on a desert island! Kids will help the lost scientist get food, water and signal for rescue. Along the way they'll fire rockets, make slime, shoot smoke rings, and see amazing electrical demonstrations with a Van De Graaff generator! Fun Mission to Space Show: The Nutty Scientists has been entrusted with a maximum-security space mission. What will it take to survive in space? Where in the solar system should we land? To answer these questions students will assist with crazy experiments. They will learn about the planets, gravity, orbits, properties of sound, near-vacuum conditions, atmospheric pressure, and volcanic reactions! Kids will also help make a comet using the same elements that are found in real comets. Ignite Curiosity! Think Nutty!

Day in Clay is a diverse, multicultural ceramic art program for K–12, including professional development and disabilities. The programs are conducted virtually and in school. Overview Headquartered in Tomkins Cove, NY, Day in Clay was founded by Cliff Mendelson in 1988. Day in Clay provides a multicultural ceramic artist in residence programs for K–12 in over 400 schools and districts. It offers both virtual and on-site assemblies and classroom interactive programs with diverse culturally inspired hands-on/demonstrations in clay. Students get a real taste of the creative process and how design, form, and function relate across disciplines and cultures. Students create and explore African, Asian, Latin/ Native American, and Greek cultures through programs like vessel making, tile making, mask making and multicultural potter's wheel, all custom-tailored for their curriculum. Students work directly with clay, learning advanced techniques and understanding how each culture tells their unique story through 3D art, and discover the relationship between art and society. In the class, students become involved in working with clay while learning advanced techniques and the science behind glazing, painting, and firing. They explore the relationship between art, science, and society. Students also use historical techniques to create, decorate, and design vessels using culturally specific patterns, symbols, and imagery. Day in Clay invites an artist to demonstrate various aspects of different programs, how they connect to the history of ceramics, and show the interrelation of ceramics in cultures worldwide. Staff development provides arts faculty with the techniques, cultural history, and hands-on problem-solving, ready-to-go lesson plans to bring clay into the classroom. Staff learn to use cultural connections as a way to connect students to their own work. The training mirrors Mendelson's college-level teaching, where engagement and sharing expertise are paramount. Lessons are tied into Native American, Asian, African, Latin American, and Greek cultures. Mendelson provides advanced hand-building techniques and the science behind glazing, painting, and firing. Staff development is custom-tailored to meet the needs of a school’s faculty. The best way to problem-solve with students is a hands-on approach and learning the limits of the materials to advance their success. A lively Q&A is always encouraged!

Kit's Interactive Theatre has 16 different high-energy shows that combine history, dance, music, improvisation and a great deal of humor where students and teachers become all the characters in the show. Students learn how their modern lives differ from those of their forebears as they explore how and why these critical events took shape. Programs are imaginative, educational and fun! They range from Ancient Egypt and Women's Rights to Mother Nature and Cinderella's Fairy Godmother.

Bright Star Touring Theatre has grown to become one of the nation's largest professional touring theaters for young audiences. Bright Star was founded in 2003 and currently expects to serve around 4,000 audiences this year with programming across America and around the world. Bright Star annually offers more than 60 different 45-minute programs ranging from anti-bullying and literary classics to American history and science-based STEM shows. Bright Star is the nation's largest provider of Black History programming and has had the honor of bringing shows to venues as diverse as the National Park Service and the National Archives and to schools and libraries across New York State. This season, our programs include more than 70 shows, including Peter Pan, Winnie-the-Pooh, A Dickens Tale, Bullysaurus Rex, The Story of Anne Frank, The Life of Dr. King, Let It Shine: The American Civil Rights Movement, a bilingual Little Red Riding Hood, and more. In addition to touring productions designed to perform in any space, the company offers theater production camps, theater workshops, residencies, and more. Our shows include comprehensive classroom study guides, post-show Q&A's, and professional actors that join our company from around the country. We are always here to answer questions and help you become acquainted with us and our work! We can't wait to entertain your young audience, as we've done for millions of audience members around the globe.

CEPA (Center for Exploratory and Perceptual Art) promotes photographic and related media artists of all levels, supporting the arts community through exhibitions, education, and critical public access to image-making resources. CEPA provides individuals, schools, and nonprofits with workshops, classes, and community spaces that are accessible to all ages, abilities, and incomes.

Rumbón Dance Studio, LLC is a dance studio that teaches Colombian-style salsa dance for beginner- and intermediate-level dancers. We also offer cardio classes and performance choreography in various dance styles. Partner and solo salsa dance develop personal skills such as patience, respect, self-awareness and emotional expression, physical skills such as balance and stamina, and musical skills such as rhythm and phrasing. Workshops and classes are perfect for work with students in school musicals, ice-breaker, team-building or social-emotional learning activities, after-school programming, as well as staff development and events.