Here students create a mural depicting how their community lives and works together

Title – A Community Mural
By – Eric C. Waldemar, Jr.
Primary Subject – Social Studies
Secondary Subjects – Art
Grade Level – 3-5

Essential Concept:

• Art reflects the history and evolution of people and their communities.
  (Social Studies Strand)

Objective:

• Students will apply their understanding of the communities to create a mural depicting how their own community lives and works together.

Materials:

• Cloth
• Student mementos from home
• Index cards

Procedure:

• Send home a letter to parents, asking for photos or other personal items for the activity. The letter should include a deadline by which materials should come in and a date when they can expect them to be returned.
• Tack a large piece of cloth onto the wall. Have students volunteer what they know about how cloth is made. Share with them background information about weaving, instructing them that it goes back to the Stone Age. Each thread in the fabric goes over and under another thread. Thus, the threads are interconnected, and therefore interdependent.
• Have students share how a cloth is similar to a community. Lead them to realize that each person represents a thread, and their experiences are integral to the whole group (i.e., the cloth)
• Make the analogy that a community contains many threads that come together to create a strong and colorful fabric. To make sure students understand the concept, encourage them to give examples of how people live and work together, though they have different backgrounds, talents, and experiences.
• Tell students that they are going to create a mural on cloth that symbolizes how the class is a community
• Have students think of things that make them and their families special. These ideas could include holidays, celebrations, work, hobbies, special talents, history, etc.
• Have students select items from home or create, draw, or find objects and items that represent their concept of family.
• Begin the mural by having students create small, colorful name tags on paper for themselves and attaching them to the spot on the fabric where they will contribute their part of the collage.
• Then have them arrange the items they have collected and brought to school.
• Have students create small labels to identify each label.
• Display and share the work with the rest of the school.

Assessment

• Evaluate the students’ understanding of communities and interdependence by monitoring the objects they choose to represent themselves and their respective families.

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