Second-grade students at BVSD's Columbine Elementary are experiencing a direct connection between a school assignment and real life this week -- while painting a mural about child-friendly communities, they are getting help on their mural from a child-friendly community of elder artists and CU-Boulder students. Their creation will get a lot of visibility, too. The final mural will be displayed in CU-Boulder's Environmental Design building in the Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design.
"The main purpose of this project is for our students to make connections with the community and build bridges across generations," said Tamar van Vliet, a second-grade teacher at Columbine Elementary who helped coordinate this intergenerational mural project. The other Columbine second-grade teachers whose students are working on the mural are Lynne Albert, Brad Buhrow, Anne Upczak Garcia, and Marisol Payet.
The student artists are painting round panels about three-feet in diameter which will be part of the installation at CU. They are also writing words that describe a child-friendly community on stencilled leaves which will be part of a "Tree of Life" in the final mural.
Students will work on the project three afternoons this week and would welcome news reporters and photographers during their painting sessions which are from noon to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (April 15, 17 and 18).
Media ~ Please call BVSD Communications at 303-245-5825 to arrange your visit.