by Teaching Artist, Malena Alzu
P.S. ARTS Teaching Artist Malena Alzu discusses an art exchange partnership she initiated with New American Pathways where her students created art that will be sent to Syrian refugee students living in Atlanta.
They’re done! I just mailed a bundle of unfinished art work made by a group of second graders from Los Angeles to Atlanta!!! Each piece is meant to be finished by a pen pal from a group of Syrian refugee students who are living in Atlanta. Our students also included letters that were written with such care that I wanted to handle them with doctor gloves!
The activity is based on the lesson “Butterfly in Symmetry,” developed by another P.S. ARTS Teaching Artist, Leah Padow. The curriculum highlights the concepts of courage, refuge, and protection. In this lesson, students identify aspects related to line, color, symmetry, and pattern and internalize that knowledge to create an art piece.
The first day, the students created a butterfly inspired by Yayoi Kusama’s work, using colored paper, tempera and q-tips. They discussed the elements Kusama used in her work and explored the concept of symmetry as it relate to butterflies and other things found in nature.
The students then created the background for their butterflies using colored paper, oil pastels, and toothpicks. We explored the book Migrant by Maxine Trottier and Isabelle Arsenault. We talked about what Monarch butterflies achieve to find a safe place, what they need to make a home for themselves, and what human beings need to feel at home. We used what we have learned so far (dots, circles, and different kind of lines) to draw a perfect home for our butterflies: a garden full of flowers!
The final step in the lesson was a letter, which students wrote for their pen pals. With their classroom teacher, they discussed who their pen pal students are, where they live, and where they come from. I collected the letters and attached them to the back of each piece with the artist’s photograph.
Now, we just have to wait for the works to fly back and forth… What will our pen pals do? What will they send? What will they feel?
