News & Notes
e Heart of an Artist
Junior kindergarten students didn't just paint hearts for Valentine's Day
in February. Instead, they used their artistic skills to honor one of the
most celebrated African-American painters of the 1940s, Jacob Lawrence.
e students learned that the Harlem artist painted everyday life as well
as historical narratives of African-Americans, including e Migration
Series, a pivotal set of pieces that focused on the movement of hundreds
of thousands of African-Americans from the rural South to the North,
and their adjustment to the Northern cities.
Students then created works on paper hearts that focused on their own
home and items around it in an effort to showcase the communities
represented in their classroom. ey first drew out their work with a pencil,
and then painted within the constructs they created, further developing
their fine motor and hand-eye coordination skills. Students also worked
in the science center to create their very own egg tempera paints because
the paints are bright, just like the colors Lawrence used in his pieces. In
addition, students created their own Migration paintings on pieces of
cardboard, the painting surface the real Lawrence used in this series.
Students worked in the science
center to create their very own egg
tempera paints because the paints
are bright, just like the colors
Lawrence used in his pieces.
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