Celebrating Literacy Through Art

Last month, The Foundations School joined the state of Florida in celebrating literacy. For one week, students had the opportunity to dress up for different themed days and hear from guest readers with a variety of backgrounds. All of this was designed to help students fall in love with reading and understand its value.

In Ms. Santiago’s second grade class, they took things a step further. Each day, after the guest reader had come in and read their book, students did a creative activity that tied into the story. For example, during one of the sessions, students heard the book Moody Cow Meditates by Kerry MacLean. In the story, the moody cow learns how to manage his emotions through mindfulness and meditation. So, after the students heard the book, they painted cups similar to the jar the moody cow used to hold his emotions. Then, they wrote down different tools for mindfulness and meditation on small slips of paper and placed them in the cup.

Over the course of the week, the students designed their own superheroes, painted rainclouds, wrote about what they would bring on a voyage across the sea, and drew pictures that weren’t supposed to be perfect. Not only did these activities allow the students to get creative, but they help reinforce the theme of the books. Ms. Santiago said that she wanted this week to be memorable for her students, and she thought the activities were a great way to keep them engaged beyond the reading session.

These activities were just one component of our fun-filled Literacy Week. You can learn more about how we celebrated reading here. You can see more photos of Ms. Santiago’s class activities on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.