Past projects 5
A Brand New Carpet for Elementary Art
Funded Sep 19, 2022When students walked into the Art Room, they were glad to find a colorful large rug on the floor! They immediately sat and laid down on it, and started feeling how fuzzy it is! They especially love the pictures of animals. We use our new rug literally every single day several times a day. Students often choose to work on the rug using a clip board rather than sitting in their seats.
Almost every class begins with students coming together on the rug to discuss the day's lesson. Today, I did an activity at the beginning of class where students copy a sculpture of a person with their body positioning and facial expression. Kathe Kollwitz's sculpture with hands covering part of her face was on the screen. I explained that Kathe Kollwitz had experienced hard things in her life that made her strong, capable, and resilient including World Wars I and II.
We were able to point to where those events occurred, and it made it funny being able to say, "Sue" is sitting on where this happened. I love being able to make connections to the world with my students using our rug. Thank you for helping us get this rug!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Marci Drury
This classroom project was brought to life by The Allstate Foundation and 8 other donors.Flexible Seating for the K-5 Art Room
Funded Jan 21, 2021I'm happy to report that the new color wheel rug and wobble stool chairs are used heavily by all the K-5 students during Art Classes. These items have really made a difference in our classroom, and help students enjoy classes more. The wobble stools have been especially impactful for students who struggle with sitting still, which is normal behavior for most kids! Our color wheel rug has become a reading/ calming center in my classroom.
At PK Yonge, our three K-5 communities K/1, 2/3, and 4/5 all feature Calm Down Corners in their classrooms and Learning Communities as part of our Caring School Communities Curriculum. Our students are accustomed to using Calm Down Corners throughout the course of the day as a place to practice soothing behaviors, breathing deeply, or coping with frustration or getting a little space to ground themselves. The Art Room needed one as well! It has become a great tool that I am happy to have in the Art Room.
Our school had a few medium sized wobble stools I was able to glean for use in the Art room. However, these stools were too small for our older students, and uncomfortable for Kindergarteners as well. Our new adjustable wobble stools are the "cool" chairs now to the point where I try to reserve them for students with actual documented need such as ADHD, since we have classes of up to 22 students.
I've also found that for some students, offering them a wobble stool or Color Wheel Rug Time can be motivating. When they didn't feel like doing Art upon entering the Art room, being offered the wobble stool or a chance to work on the color wheel rug makes them feel just a little bit more special, and they approach their work with a little more confidence and positive attitude! Students love it when they are seen and recognized as individuals, and their work habits reflect that. Thank you for helping my students to be just a little more comfortable and for adding beauty and interest to our classroom!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Marci Drury
K-5 Art Creative Art Supplies
Funded Mar 26, 2021My students were so excited to see a whole boxful of new art materials for the art room! It was fun introducing them to new materials! They especially loved using the watercolor crayons and turning them into paint by adding water. Most students have used crayons before and even have them in their homes, but watercolor crayons are something they had not encountered before, and they were fascinated.
Students enjoyed playing with our new set of hole punchers, and carefully used the new bottles of glue to stick their creations together. They had fun learning to use drawing chalk as well, smudging and smearing to get the affects they wanted. My students are used to watercolor paints in trays, but most do not have access to the large sized paint trays we received through this grant. The large trays have only the primary colors, challenging students to create their own secondary colors by mixing.
2nd and 3rd grade students were my guinea pigs for testing out these materials, but I'm very excited to do projects this year that use these specific items with Kdg and 1st as well as my older students. These new items allowed them to try many different ways of making art, and helped them build their creativity and love art class!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Marci Drury
This classroom project was brought to life by T-Mobile and 3 other donors.Kiln-free Clay for Kids Who Love Clay
Funded Sep 12, 2015We are so excited about this grant! Now several grades will be able to use clay during their art classes this year! Your contribution is going to make a big difference and put smiles on hundreds of student's faces. It is typically their favorite art material.
Clay is great for kinetic learners and useful for all levels and types of learners, even those with severe physical handicaps or fine motor skill issues. Use of materials like clay helps close the achievement gap between high and low performing students who learn well and connect to hands on construction.
Kiln free clay is essential to our art program, and it tends to be one of the most expensive items we use. I'm so glad there are people like you in our community willing to help and contribute to these student's learning experience.”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Marci Drury
Art Class Materials Make Kids smART!
Funded Aug 13, 2015Thank you so much for your donation to our school's Art Department! We are thrilled to have a supply of basic art supplies that we really need. As part of our new school district, the Art Department is proud of the work our student's do.
Our students enter and win local art contests, and we are very proud! More importantly through art, all students gain a sense of pride in craftsmanship, learn about the creative process, make connections to their learning in other classes and in life, and hopefully find that there are multiple solutions to problems in the world instead of just one right answer.
I am so glad there are generous people in our community (and far from our community) who care about our students and their art learning.
Thank you so much!”
With gratitude,
Mrs. Marci Drury