Elyssa Ascher's and Josephine Velez's dual language students at Archer Street School partnered with art teacher Joyce Elias to create a 24-foot-wide hallway mural that represents the urban, suburban and rural communities they have studied as part of the second-grade social studies curriculum.
Over the past few months, Ascher's and Velez's students studied cities, farms and suburbs from all around the world using the Internet, the classroom Smart Board and books from the school library.
As part of the exercise, students wrote in both English and Spanish about the characteristics of these communities and how they are alike and different. These compositions have been hung above the mural. They also created paper self-portraits, which were placed within the community setting of their choice on the three-panel display.
The mural is mounted on the bulletin boards a few steps down the hall from the main office.
