Recent Projects
I paint my own reality. I paint self-portraits because…
I am the person I know best.
—Frida Kahlo
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Take a look at some recent projects and happenings!
SHRINKING OUR CARBON FOOTPRINT: CLAYMATION!
In Spring 2009 we were busy exploring innovative ways to teach others how to reduce our carbon footprint in Room 302. Our 8th graders designed claymation public service announcements on a variety of topics—driving less, switching to more fuel efficient lighting, planting more trees and GO GREEN (just to name a few…)! Students storyboarded their scripts, constructed clay figures, photographed their work in stop-animation and constructed/edited their videos. This art and technology collaboration was featured at Tech 2009 in Springfield, Illinois in May 2009.
Measure your personal carbon footprint here and compare it to individuals across the globe. You may be surprised… http://www.zerofootprintkids.com/kids_home.aspx This project was sponsored by The Oppenheimer Family Foundation. Look at some of our finished projects on Mrs. Termini’s Technology website!
2009: THE YEAR OF THE OX!
Our annual Chinese New Year Parade is a festive tradition at Waters School! We spend weeks studying various art forms to ring in the new year with style. Last year handmade kites, dragons, scrolls, masks, puppets and noisemakers accompanied the songs the children learned with Ms. Zelle! 2010 is the Year of the Tiger AND the celebration is on February 14th—what a great day to wear red! We will keep you updated on upcoming activities…
ARTIFACTS OF THE SILK ROAD: WIKISPACES, MUSICAL LANGUAGE, DRAMATIC COMMUNICATION AND SHADOW PLAY
We created a journey along The Silk Road and all are invited to check it out! 6th grade students in Room 303 explored The Silk Road via a variety of lenses—music, drama, history, technology and visual arts and planned a culminating showcase for all Waters School students last May. We worked on wikispace journals to teach our peers and document our progress. Students are designed shadow puppet plays that were rooted in the folk tales of Samarkland, Bukhara and many other stops along The Silk Road in art class. We shared our puppet theatre at our culminating event for 2nd-5th graders!
Click here to see a video of our project created by a Waters School student in Ms. Termini’s class.
JOURNEYS OF HOPE AND DREAMS
MURAL PROJECT 2008-2009
This mural is about hopes and dreams. My favorite part of the mural would be being able to paint my face for everyone to see. The symbols the wall represent freedom and hope and love. The worst part of the mural would be that painting is so much work. It takes a lot of time. It’s worth it! The wishes and speeches on the walls represent our hopes for the future. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Harriet Tubman are on the wall because they tie into what we are doing. They hoped and tried to make a better future. They did as much as they could. The states and world represent the planet Earth and all of us. That is what the mural is about…hopes, dreams and the future.
—AJ, A 5th grade Student Artist
5th grade students shared their hopes and dreams for the 21st century through symbols, patterns and paint in this mural-making project. Students explored the hopes and dreams of African American experience by studying the symbol systems and writings of the Akan peoples of Ghana, the freedom fighters of Early America and the everyday heroes of the Civil Rights Movement. We looked at the power of hope and dreams to create action in daily life in this project. Our understandings and reflections are permanently documented on the walls of our third floor staircase. Students’ personal hopes and dreams are scripted beside our multimedia images in order to turn lessons from the past into change we can all work toward in the future. Special thanks to Patricia Reyes for all of her help with this project and to CAPE for sponsoring our work.
Our final stage of this project honors the 44th President of The United States of America, President Barack Obama, who has reminded us all that…
“Our destiny is not written for us, but by us.”
Stop by the north stairwell and see our finished product!
ALL ABOUT ME TRAVELING EXHIBIT & PERFORMANCE
An annual Primary Grades 1st Quarter Showcase!
Please follow this link to see the educational story and documentation of last year’s ALL ABOUT ME 2nd grade project, Memory Maps & Sidewalk Poems, at the Fine And Performing Arts Magnet Cluster’s website:
www.bccla.net/units.html
(Search Waters School, Literacy and Memory Maps; Sidewalk Poems)
DIAS DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRATION
MY FAVORITE CELEBRATION…
Our Día de los Muertos celebration was a wonderful experience for all! Students created a variety of printmaking projects based on the artwork of José Guadalupe Posada. We created block and collograph prints of happy calaveras, marigolds, monarchs and even a few ofrendas in our study. Our favorite subject was, of course, Catrina with her outlandish hat and charismatic smile! Students shared “I honor…” statements to remember beloved pets, friends and loved ones who have passed. Our Fine Arts Parent Ensemble Ofrenda was a blaze of purple and orange and the food was delicious! Special thanks to Patricia Hernandez, Monica Soto Cambron, Maria Cardenas, Gloria Jacobson, Rooms 202, 201, 207, 205, 304, The Parent Ensemble and the numerous parents who created our ofrenda, designed papel picado and cooked our wonderful food!
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A Look Back to the Past…
2008 WATERS SCHOOL FAIR TRADE BAZAAR
SCIENCE & SOCIAL STUDIES INTEGRATION:5th & 6th graders explored the Chicago Humanities Festival theme Climate of Concern in our SCALE afterschool program. We looked at Nature—the ultimate recycler (as Mr. Leki has told us)— and thought about the 4Rs—reduce, reuse, recycle and RETHINK. Students explored art cooperatives around the world that take environmental and economic concerns into their own hands by creating indigenous arts to sell to the global community. We combined these ideas to create handmade goods such as paper mache bowls (reusing advertising mailers and old homework worksheets) and reused material rugs (reusing plastic bags, old t-shirts, recycled yarn and fabric remmnants). The Fine Arts Parent Ensemble also created products for our IDay event. Moms were busy crocheting handbags (reusing yarn and plastic bags) and made paper mache bowls and rugs too! We worked together to raise money to benefit Heifer International, Mayaworks and Camino Seguro.
INTERNATIONAL DAY 2008
TOTAL EARNINGS: $1,100.00!
ALL PROCEEDS WERE DONATED TO…
Heifer International
Mayaworks
Camino Segura
Many thanks to Gloria Ordonez for our stunning silk remnants and to Marcy Kollath for e-cycling our many, many, many skeins of yarn! Our five classroom-sized looms for this project were purchased through a grant from the Oppenheimer Family Foundation and we appreciate Mr. Oppenheimer’s continued support of Waters School. SCALE is sponsored in its entirety by a generous grant from Chicago Arts Partnership in Education. Without their support, this programming would not be possible.Very special appreciation to Patricia Reyes-Okulinski and Eileen Ryan, our SCALE Artist(s)-In-Residence extraordinaire, who shared their creative talents with us on this project. A thousand thanks to our fabulous Waters School community for your support!
ELIMINATING E-WASTE: GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP SCULPTURES
SCIENCE INTEGRATION: In 2006/2007, Middle schoolers created recycled material sculptures for the gardens of Waters School as an extension to our HP Technology For Teaching Grant. We used (safe) e-waste materials, found objects, pottery, tile and concrete to create global citizens to remind us all to “recycle, reuse, reduce and rethink ‘ and take environmental ownership of our planet as we walk through our school’s beautiful gardens. We looked at the current e-waste disposal practices that in effect “transport harm” to other countries (See BAN Network photo (right): Current e-Waste dump site in Guiyo, China.) and study the outsider artist Nek Chand as an individual who transformed in his community through his commitment to recycling and his passion for his art. Look to the HOMEWORK page to learn more about Nek Chand.
MIGRATION; TRANSFORMATION: EXPLORING WATERS’ COMMUNITY THROUGH THE ARTS
SCIENCE
SOCIAL STUDIES INTEGRATION: In 2006/2007, 5th graders explored what makes a community in our SCALE afterschool program. We looked at the map of our school community and through fieldwork, ethnographic research, music and visual art documented its past, present and future.We planned numerous fieldtrips into the community armed with cameras, sketchbooks and a big sense of wonder. We looked at community icons such as the Chicago River, Sulzer Regional Library, The Cambodian American Heritage Museum (CAHM) and the Governor as well as be captured stories from shop owners and our many neighbors. We started this project by first looking at our own families and asking ourselves what community means to us. We culminated this project with a community exhibit at the CAHM at the end of the school year. Check out the incredible streetside photographic banners that surround Waters School that were a final product of this phenonomenal experience!
ARCHIVE: FAMILY PICTURES: A MURAL IN TWO VOICES
LANGUAGE ARTS INTEGRATION: In 2006, 4th and 5th grade students, parents, and siblings collaborated to create an interactive mural space on the 2nd floor of the school that documents family history through both image and text. This intergenerational project united parents and children as a community of storytellers who celebrate family stories, cultural folklore and real life experience as a tool to learn about our collective yet diverse pasts, creating a people’s history of Waters School.
This project was sponsored by the Oppenheimer Family Foundation.
THE TREE OF LIFE MURAL PROJECT
SCIENCE INTEGRATION & CULTURAL STUDIES: In 2005, students were busy exploring the Tree of Life across time and across space as a cultural and artistic metaphor for who we are and where we come from.This project was an extended response to the dynamic study of taxomonies, adaptation and habitat studied with Mr. Leki, Waters School teachers, parents and CAPE artists in the afterschool SCALE arts integration partnership. Students looked at how the Tree of Life has been interpreted throughout time (beginning with Mayan rock art) and throughout the world (Mexico to Mozambique). Students created their own interpretations and created a mural that shares their interpretations with the Waters School community. Take a look at the final product in the community installation space across from the office.
