One thing that I really enjoy about the A+ Award is seeing how all of you come up with creative solutions to solve some of life’s little problems. These five girls, who their teachers call the “Mural Girls” did just that! Their artistic abilities, and unique problem solving, earned Ava, Kendall, Addison, Lola, and Madelyn, all seventh graders at Bay Middle School, this week’s A+ Award.
Their sixth grade social studies teacher, Mrs. Guinter wanted a more permanent display outside of her classroom, rather than several bulletin boards. Then a great solution came to mind! What if they replaced the bulletin boards with murals! Ms. Guinter and art teacher Fortunato challenged their students to design murals featuring the themes of sixth grade social studies. You sixth graders watching know that in sixth grade you study ancient civilizations and world religions.
The Mural Girls, along with other classmates all submitted sketches of their ideas for five murals to replace the bulletin boards. Lola told us that she wanted to paint a mural featuring ancient India because she was inspired by the architecture. Addison chose to paint a mural featuring five world religions because of the impact that religion has on millions of people across the globe. The other three murals feature Mesopotamia, Egypt, and ancient China.
It wasn’t as easy as just painting a picture on a wall. The five artists told us that they used a grid method, that was actually common for Renaissance artists to use in painting murals, to enlarge their sketches. We were amazed to learn that it wasn’t just social studies and art that they were learning about! They also had to use math to figure out the proper ratios of paint to mix to create the perfect colors for their murals. A ratio tells you how much of one thing there is compared to another thing. Ms. Fortunato told us that the five artists spent most of the first month of their summer vacation at school painting the murals. Both Ms. Guinter and Ms. Fortunato are both excited to be able to use the murals as teaching examples for this year’s sixth graders.
Kendall told us that she really learned that even if you don’t think something is perfect, you might realize that it actually is perfect, but in a different way. Kendall, that’s a great attitude to have.
The mural girls said that they’re really proud of their work and they would definitely do it again even though it took a lot of time . This week’s A+ Award winners are Ava, Kendall, Addison, Lola, and Madelyn for using their artistic talents to solve a problem and teach a little bit of world history.
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