Beasley Lower School artists have been spreading happiness in their homes and neighborhoods with a recent art project that was inspired by last year’s visiting artist, Mark Borella, otherwise known as “The Seeds of Happiness Guy.” (Remember that adorable video of our students spreading seeds of happiness in the MICDS community!)
All Beasley students, junior kindergarteners through fourth graders, participated in this distance learning project. The students created a piece of art using Seeds-of-Happiness-style smiley faces and a couple of important art techniques, overlapping and use of space – as demonstrated in this video. With this project, students also learned that their art can convey a message and feeling, and with that, they can make a difference in the world. They were encouraged to hang the art in their windows for neighbors to enjoy or gift it to someone in need of a smile. Check out some of the student artwork below – it is sure to bring a smile to your face.
Lower School Art Teacher Sarah Garner shared her inspiration for this project. “Now more than ever, we need smiles! And no one does smiles better than Seeds of Happiness and Mark Borella. Mark has visited our school twice in the past five years and has become an inspiration to me and to the students he has met. I thought of his message of spreading happiness with a smile and went from there. I hope our students know that they have a voice in their art and that their art can make someone else feel happy and spread smiles.”
Garner also reflected on adjusting her Lower School art curriculum to the distance learning environment. “It is such a unique learning experience to teach from a distance. I think that is also why I chose to do a project that connects people. Staying connected with my students is so important and seeing the student artists every day is one of the things I miss the most. I miss seeing their smiling faces. That is the biggest difference: missing the person-to-person interactions. In other ways, the Lower School art curriculum is very much the same. The students are creating, thinking about the process and talking about their art – it is just virtual now. The students are still very much engaged – thanks to the partnerships that we have developed with families – and they continue to connect with art as well as all of the specialist and homeroom classes and teachers. Even though we are learning remotely, we are still connecting with students and creating opportunities for them to grow and write their own stories through visual art.”
During these unique times and always, our Beasley artists are committed to spreading happiness!