What is In Your Heart?

What Is In Your Heart?

This was such a fun project, especially coming right off of Valentines Day! An artist friend of ours, Petra Eiko, was involved in creating a wonderful art exhibit called “What is In Your Heart” that is currently on exhibit in Santa Monica. Visitors to the shop/gallery were asked to answer this question via drawing and writing, and to ‘post’ their answers in the gallery space.

I helped filmed the opening reception of this project for Petra, and was so inspired by what I saw that I decided to have our Living Histories students participate as well. Without much prompting beyond a basic explanation, they were asked to answer the question of ‘what is in your heart?’; their answers, as you can see below, are quite insightful, touching, and funny.

The project, as a side note, was also a great teaching tool for the difference between ‘literal’ and ‘figurative’ and we’ll be using it as an introduction to our poetry writing this week.

Check them out:







































*Note, this particular artist is currently in love with a very handsome 1st grader named Kai.





*Note, this particular artist is currently a little bit obsessed with dolphins.

Abstract designs

We've been working on abstract designs inspired by Alexander Calder. We looked at Calder's work while making our ecosystem mobiles last month, and now we are looking at his paintings. This is a great introduction for drawing and color theory; students are creating abstract designs inspired by shapes found in nature (building on what we've been doing with our gardens and ecosystem lessons), then painting them in primary colors. They loooove the project!

Gardens are still growing!

Transplanting, watering and lots of looking...our seeds are still growing, and everyone is anxious for spring and to start planting outside!

I love how excited the students are about our plants - looking for signs of growth is one of the first things they do now when they come to class!