Maples Elementary School participated in the annual PTA Reflections program this year.  The main theme was “Let Your Imagination Fly” and each grade level had a sub theme.  I was invited to submit four pieces of artwork from K-2 and four pieces of artwork from 3-5 to the Reflections Program.  I selected pieces that were finished,  had a successful composition and were aesthetically pleasing.  This was no easy task and there were many, many pieces that were very creative and wonderful!  Out of the entries below, Zeinab Zawawi was awarded 3rd Place with her artwork entitled Billy the Butterfly.  There will be a ceremony later in the school year that each of the eight students will be invited to.

Kindergarten:  Students drew and painted anything from their imagination.  First we talked about what ‘imagination’ meant!

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1st Grade: After reading the book If I Built A Car by Chris Van Dusen, students used their imaginations to design their own cars.  Many had pools, a snack bar and soccer fields.

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2nd Grade: We watched a youtube video of the reading of Faith Ringgold’s book Tar Beach.  In the book a girl named Ruby ‘owned’ anything that she ‘flew’ over.  We decided that she was dreaming about flying and used her imagination to pretend she owned things.  Everyone drew what they wanted to own and we added pictures of the students flying over it.

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3rd Grade:  Students brainstormed about daydreaming.  We made a list of things including places to visit, favorite things to eat, fun things to do with our families, great report cards and more recess time.  Everyone used their imagination to create their own daydream.

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4th Grade:  We were learning about the artist Andy Warhol and discovered that he had created a series of Rorschach style prints.  Those are the prints that psychologists used to ask patients “What do you see when you look at this?”  Students learned about symmetry when they each created their own ‘ink blob’.  They used their imagination to write a story explaining what they saw and taking their blob on an adventure.

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5th Grade:   Students were learning about Outer Space in Science and preparing to go on a field trip to Henry Ford Community College’s Planetarium and campus.  Students used their imagination to create their very own outer space including the planets, aliens and rocket ships.  Each student wrote about their artwork.

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