Creative Minds Construct Art Out of Junk

FWCD third graders engaged their imaginative minds working with ordinary recyclables and used items at the May 3 Junkyard Wonders event. Students were tasked with creating art for the Lower School Village. Each group consisted of four students, one from each third grade class, who worked together to generate ideas, and then used the items collected to bring their art to life. Each group was tasked with a certain project, such as grade-level village signs, water bottle fish, wreaths, mobiles, tin can bugs, milk jug animals, tin can wind chimes, milk jug totem poles and lid art. Community members can see the creations around the Lower School Village.

This project is the culmination of the students’ study of Patricia Polacco’s literary works. In The Junkyard Wonders, Polacco gives the reader an intimate look into her childhood as a struggling student in a “special class” in elementary school. Labeled as a “junkyard kid”, Polacco and her friends discover the endless possibilities that lie in making unique creations out of ordinary objects. The junkyard transforms into a beautiful and exciting place, and the junkyard kids become wonders themselves.

FWCD’s third grade students created their pieces of art out of supplies such as bottle caps, empty water bottles, cans, plastic jugs, sharpies and hangers … just about anything under the sun! Kelly Lanier Tierce ’93 started this project in 2014; this year, it was sponsored by the third grade team: Meredith Hudgens Cunningham ’04,  Shelby Ginsburg, Heather Goldman and Katy Thompson Hobbs ’97.

The teachers choose the topic of what the third graders will create every year and said this project helps students learn how to work in groups and create something as a team.