During our second Mind Move Make class, the students created Community Maps. These maps are a collection of three circles, a central circle with the core people that the student is closest to, a middle ring for people who are very important (friends, teachers, cousins), and a third circle for people who help us but we might not know very well (custodians, school secretaries, letter carriers, garbage collectors). My goal is for each student to realize that there are SO MANY PEOPLE who help and support us everyday! Here are a few of the Community Maps created by students.
During our next class I asked these three questions of the students:
1. What is an Everyday Superhero to you?
2. Looking at your Community Map, who will you choose as your Everyday Superhero?
3. How are you grateful to this person?
I explained that we would create Everyday Superhero postcards for one individual from our Community Map to tell them how much we appreciate the work they do for the community. I have an extensive postcard collection, and I brought in several to share with the students. I also designed a postcard for my own Everyday Superhero, a security guard who I see feeding the pigeons around TIS. He has a parade of pigeons following him every time I see him, and this just makes me smile. It is a small thing, in a way, but it makes me so happy to see him surrounded by pigeons. He is usually smiling and talking to them in a low, cooing voice. For my Everyday Superhero postcard design, I depicted Super Pigeon! I'll post a picture of Super Pigeon when it is finished.
All the students created a sketch in their sketchbooks of what they wanted their Everyday Superhero postcard to look like. Then they transferred the design onto a very nice piece of watercolor paper cut into postcard size. I truly enjoyed visiting each student and asking about the individual they chose for their Everyday Superhero. Many students chose either a current or a former teacher. One student chose his origami teacher and crowned him Origami King! Another boy picked his Mother and turned her into Waffle Woman because she makes him waffles for breakfast many mornings during the week. Here are many of the quirky, fun, beautiful artworks the students created!
