A Day to Celebrate Double!

Today was a doubly celebratory day. It is unusual to have both a secular holiday and a religious holiday on the same day!  We honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and we celebrated Tu Bishvat, the birthday of the trees, and we kicked off this special day with a school-wide assembly.

The rest of the day was a special day of learning.  From learning about the seven species and shmita, to Dr. King's legacy and his impact in today's society.

Artwork created by 1st - 4th grade students.
Dr. King's Portrait done by our amazing Mr. Bugelli!

Over the past week-ish, students partook in an inspiring activity in art class that bridged the two celebrations. And in tech today, second graders engaged a directed drawing of Dr. King himself. 

I tried this same guided drawing a few years ago, and made some tweaks this year that made it even better. First, instead of having the kids draw directly on the iPads, we blended things - they drew with pencil and paper, and then we took a picture and uploaded it to Seesaw. Then they add some embellishments and a recording to complete the activity. 

Each of their drawings, even though they all followed the same set of directions, turned out as unique as each student - and all of them, despite level of ability, were wonderfully done. They would have made Dr. King quite proud!