Argenziano After-School Art Club Creates Mosaics for School Garden

In Ms. Diana Taremi’s Art Club it’s all about line, form, color and composition. More than a dozen middle school students started on several projects on Monday afternoons; creating art both for themselves and making projects to beautify the school. Their first assignment: Georgia O’Keefe-style painting on large canvases for the first floor hallway. The bright, lush flower canvasses are still works in progress.

The students are also creating flower tile mosaics that will be set in cement and used as stepping stones in the school’s kitchen garden.

Ms.Emily Bhargava, a mosaic artist from Somerville, donated her time and bags and boxes of materials; tiles from large to small to the art club for the project. On a recent afternoon, Ms. Bhargava spent an afternoon at Art Club teaching Ms. Taremi and the students how to assemble the mosaics.

First the students painted large pictures of flowers. They covered these with plastic wrap to protect them; then layered mesh on the paintings to which they glued colorful tiles. “Beautiful!” says Ms. Taremi of the work. Ms. Taremi demonstrates tile placement and gluing to the Art Club students. Sixth graders Graciela and Jaime work on their mosaics, choosing just the right colors and gluing the tiles in place. The mosaics will be set in cement and grouted before being placed in the garden to be used as stepping stones for Argenziano’s future gardeners in the school’s kitchen garden.

An excerpt from the Argenziano School Newsletter.

Comments

Mindful Eating: Part 1

In order to digest your food properly, your body must be in parasympathetic mode, or in a state of non-stress. Kindergartners know this. Well, they might not know the scientific term yet, but during lunch they participate in 6 minutes of silence; a period they call "Mindful Eating". When asked why they like mindful eating, the children replied, because "it’s quiet”, “I can enjoy my food better”, “I get peace and quiet”, and "it’s calmly”. Kindergartener teacher Ms. Scrima, and other Kennedy School teachers have been implementing mindfulness in the cafeteria and their classrooms since last year. They are proud to have a lunch period that looks and sounds quite different from the chaotic cafeteria rush other classes often experience. While the students sit silently at the lunch table checking in with their emotions, their digestive systems are also benefitting. Physiologically, only when our bodies are in rest mode can the brain trigger the release of digestive ...

Put your best FORK forward during National Nutrition Month

March is National Nutrition Month! Each year the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics develops new topics to celebrate National Nutrition Month. This year's theme, Put your best fork forward, encourages us to consider that every bite counts. Even "small shifts in our food choices, can add up over time." Here in Somerville we are celebrating National Nutrition Month in a few ways. ~ We are releasing Veggie of the Month kits in each school's library! The kits contain books, taste testing supplies, and a binder with lesson materials for each month! ~ We are visiting a few PreK-2nd grade classes to "taste-test" the veggie of the month: leafy greens! In the classroom, we are reading Sylvia's Spinach and making a simple salad dressing to drizzle over spinach! (Be sure to check back later for the results of our visits!) ~ Our Wellness Champions and Farm to School Staff are posting bulletin boards and fliers around the schools! ...

How do we get kids to eat their leafy greens? Try these 2 recipes...

For this year's National Nutrition Month, we are "Going Further with Food!" It's an assumption that getting our kids to eat their leafy greens is always a colossal battle. It's true--salads aren't easy to convince a kid to try when they're staring at something that resembles rabbit food. But by assuming they won't try it means you've already given up, and that's not what we're about here at the Somerville Farm to School Project! So how do we make salads desirable? For one, we can provide a space for children to grow their own food, to learn the parts of a plant, and to nurture something from seed to harvest. We've learned that, "if they grow it, they'll eat it". It's empowering to be hands-on with food! Even if you don't have outdoor garden space, leafy greens are easy to grow indoors or in small pots as long as you have a sunny window or space. Secondly, you can involve kids in the kitchen by making fun salad ...

Somerville Farm to School Project

Search This Blog