Approximately 800 children will be tapping their feet to the smooth beat of Zydeco music when Rockwell Elementary hosts the culmination day for “Down on the Bayou,” on Sept. 27.

The kids will explore art all day long, Principal Robert Owen said. The children will create art and musical instruments, as well as dance in big groups. The areas of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana will be the focus of learning. The children do a lot of activities, Owen said, and “by the time we jazz it up, it ends up being fun.”

“This is a course of study more so than an event,” Owen said.

Discipline based arts education is the model that is used. This means that art is the main theme and you plug in other courses, he said.

“The whole core of your unit is the arts and other subjects build around it,” Owen said.

It is a paradigm shift, he said, which emphasizes the importance of art. Four areas including visual arts, music, theater and dance will be incorporated into the curriculum. Rockwell Elementary chooses two themes a year.

“Everything we are doing has to do with something from the bayou county,” Owen said.

Zydeco music was the starting point for this time, and then the other three areas of study were developed, he said.

The art of Louisiana native, George Rodrigue, a Cajun artist, made famous for his “Blue Dog” series, will be studied. Some of his paintings now sell for thousands of dollars each, Owen said. Purchased prints and copies will be displayed in the school halls and the children will make reproductions of some of the paintings, Owen said.

There will be dancing to Zydeco music, instead of the usual physical education activities. For theater, Cajun storytellers will be on hand to tell Cajun children’s stories. The children will be taught about Cajun and Creole cultures.

Even the food will have a bayou flair, as the cafeteria staff is in the process of preparing a menu that lends itself toward cajun and creole foods, like chicken gumbo, Owen said.

The grand finale will feature Louisiana musician and recording artist Curley Taylor who will perform at 1:30 p.m. The “Down on the Bayou” is open to the children of Rockwell Elementary and their parents, Owen said.

“Down on the Bayou” begins Sept. 10 and ends Sept. 28.

In the meantime, plans are already being made for January’s theme, which will concentrate on the country of France, Owen said.

Children will be given the opportunity to perhaps study art by Monet, for example. This is the eleventh year to do this,”Owen said, adding that almost every decade of the 20th century has been used as a theme.