Ending the School Year With a "Rosie's Brain" Bang!

...Feeling super proud that we made it happen! The amazing Linda Ryden, author of the Peace of Mind Curriculum that integrates mindfulness, social and emotional learning and conflict resolution, wrote an engaging story to illustrate what happens when your brain gets upset. Lafayette 5th graders collaborated to create the illustrations as a part of art class. Our special edition was published just in time for the 5th grade graduation festivities last week!

Celebrating ARTS NIGHT with 700+ students... and their families!

A parent told me at ARTS NIGHT 1 last week, "this is my child's favorite night of the year!" Wow!

• Maybe they love it because every child gets to perform.
• Maybe they love it because every child has a personally chosen and personally titled piece of art on display.
• Maybe they love it because it's like a giant book release party and they can buy the most beloved and most read publication at Lafayette- IMAGES, our art and literary anthology!
• Maybe they love it because it feels like a true celebration of the arts and a party to boot with pizza and cookies and balloons!

Whatever the reason... it's a labor of love for our amazing Lafayette students and hearing wonderful comments like that makes the many, many hours of work all worth it!!! 

5th graders "sell" our Images after learning about Propaganda posters from WWll

A sampling of grade 1 Art... in a trailer? No problem!

A sampling of grade 2 Art at the East end of Trailer F

 

The EARTH Without ART is Just EH...:)

OK, so how do you celebrate Earth Day? With ART of course... art with a message... what a great way to empower young artists to know they can make a difference in whatever cause is near and dear to their heart! Tomorrow is EARTH day and Lafayette's 3rd graders created art that communicates their love and desire to care for this Earth... their Earth! Thanks to some committed parents their art became part of our Earth Day celebration on Earth Day eve!

 

In conjunction with our Earth Day festivities, a temporary garden in our temporary space gets a celebratory banner thanks to some skilled 3rd-5th grade artists! 

 

Exploring Architecture Through a Transformed Photo

Grade 3 completed these masterpieces weeks ago! They were so proud of their efforts that I am finally and belatedly sharing them with you here!

Each 3rd grader brought in a photo they had taken or researched as a part of a class project. We used acetate and a sharpie to outline each architectural feature we saw. Finding the details honed our powers of observation and knowledge about the architecture. Color came next as we learned to mix tints, shades, neutrals and low intensity colors by adding a bit of the color's complement.

Then the entire project is flipped and voila! All those observed details reveal themselves underneath our custom colors!

 
 

An Annual 5th Grade Tradition Continues with Gusto!

Once again each and every 5th grader had their hand in sewing this year's flying geese quilt for their 2016 Lafayette class creation! We hand and machine stitched our way through hundreds of tiny triangles and squares to create a contemporary version of an Underground Railroad coded message quilt we titled "Flying North".

Just some of the enthusiastic crew that spent their lunch recesses working on our 2016 masterpiece!

 Even though Ozella McDaniels Williams' story of coded message quilts being used on the Underground Railroad has not been corroborated, we still found the possibility intriguing and visually inspirational!

Celebrate Curiousity and Creativity at the Renwick!

What to do when it's snowy or rainy, cold or dreary? Enter the magical world that is the current installation at one of Washington's oldest museums... the Renwick Gallery. Wander through branchy "fairy houses" and stare down the center of a ginormous tree. Marvel at the color of light and how it transforms everyday objects into something mysterious and exciting. This is a show for young and old alike and not to be missed by our curious and creative Lafayette community!!!

When a Trailer Park Campus Feels Like a Palace...

I was fortunate enough to visit a needy, rural school in Jamaica to donate some art supplies recently. Despite basic facilities, concrete and tin construction, no glass in the "windows", and desks which looked like they came from the 1800s, the teachers were implementing a rigorous curriculum and students seemed eager to learn. 

Teachers handmade most of their own teaching resources and seemed deeply committed to making the most with very little. The students were eager to share and be photographed. 

 

Our visit was sobering yet inspiring and reinforced my feeling that we at Lafayette are so very fortunate!!!