Early on in the school year, both classes of the 4th grade were tasked with a pretty large project. They would be designing a mural that they would be painting onto the wall in the hallway that leads into the school cafeteria. It was to be their project from start to finish and would involve a lot of thought, cooperation and talent.
The first thing they did was to select the themes that they wanted to include. Using the school's vision and mission statements as a jumping off point, the kids chose a topic that they would expand on. Their task was twofold - draw an image representing the theme and then write a statement to go with the picture incorporating the idea.
Once they all had their drawings and statements in place, their names were removed, and the pieces were presented to the whole school for a vote. Those that got the most votes were the ones that would be incorporated into the final mural. MadHatter's drawing of the children holding hands around a globe made it onto the final piece in a slightly modified version (It is in the lower left corner. The children now hold hands around the Bavarian flag). Now that all of the design elements were decided upon, it was time to put it all together into one cohesive mural. With a lot of help from their teacher Ms. C the final design was drawn, approved and ready for painting just two weeks before the end of the school year!
Using a large projector, the children's original drawings were enlarged and traced onto the wall with a pencil. And then the real fun began. The kids were each assigned a part of the mural to paint, and a few parents were asked to help supervise (and perhaps do some paint mixing and touching up along the way). I was lucky to be invited and jumped at the chance to help these kids leave their mark on the school. For two weeks the kids came up two at a time and chose their brushes, mixed their colors, painted their sections and then cleaned up. It was great to watch their ownership and pride in this project as the weeks went on.
This picture gives you some idea of how large this is!
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