Pandora's Box: Opening at a theater near you!

I shared this movie trailer with Anne's fourth grade class (greek mythology experts) and I thought you might like to see it too!

pandora's box from on Vimeo.

So I guess you know that I was just having some fun with imovie now. Anne's fourth grade class did love seeing their art on the "big screen" and it was a great way to start off a group discussion/reflection about the project.

fourth grade pandora's box

The story of Pandora's Box is a rich source for visual interpretation. The students were asked to create their own Pandora's Box from clay using a slab construction technique. This was a wonderful opportunity for independent study and each student developed their own ideas through sketches and discussion. The results are highly original and creative interpretations of an ancient myth.



















The fourth graders were asked to write artist statements. They could write about their creative process, write an original story or poem, or retell the myth referencing details from their boxes. For the first time this year, we used garageband to make a multimedia artist statement. They loved doing this part and did a great job using the art room macs! For example, here is a play on Pandora Radio from clever Willa:

Untitled from on Vimeo.

Allison did a beautiful job describing the artmaking process:

Untitled from on Vimeo.

And Fran gives us a dramatic retelling of the original myth:

Untitled from on Vimeo.

See all of the fourth grade Pandora's Boxes here!

second grade full moon rattles

May is the Flower Moon

Can you guess how the second grade artists made these ceramic rattles? They used a special technique using two pinch pots to make a round rattle inspired by the full moon. We read some full moon poems from the book, When The Moon Is Full by Mary Azarian. The titles of the poems are from Native American names for each full moon. The second grade artists chose a poem to inspire their own full moon rattle design.


June is the Strawberry Moon

Each rattle has a unique sound depending on the size and number of beads inside. Lisa's second grade class worked with our amazing perfoming arts specialist, Ben Griffiths, to record these unique sounds using garageband (how cool is that?!). Originally, we had just wanted to make a recording of the rattles but our very creative students thought it would be even better to include the poems too!
Listen to all of their beautiful work here.


February is the Snow Moon


October is the Hunter’s Moon


August is the Green Corn Moon


January is the Wolf Moon


July is the Buck Moon


December is the Long Night Moon


March is the Sap Moon


April is the Frog Moon

We finished this project a couple of months ago to coincide with this rare cosmic event. We'll have to wait until the year 2094 to see that happen again but you can always see the next full moon on March 19th!