hope is the thing with feathers

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all...
-Emily Dickinson

The second grade artists thought of this poem and the bird metaphor as they created a clay bird on which to place their own hopes! Above is a bird shaped collection of their hopes. I also did this project with my fifth grade advisory at the beginning of the year as a place to put their academic and personal hopes for the year. Something about stamping each letter of their hope into the clay really helps to strengthen the concept for them.



I was inspired to do this project after seeing Kristin Love's beautiful Poetry Birds. The second graders really responded to her use of texture and fluid shape.


I love the way Andrew creatively stamped in his name and his hope for more art in the world!








Hope for strong friendships.


Hope for quiet- from his sister:)


His original hope was to discover that dinosaurs really do still exist. After considering the space constraints, he shortened it to find.




I am always asking them to be brave artists so I was pleased to see some hopes to be brave!




Aashna was proud to share with us that her name means hope.

birthday birds

Say hello to our new batch of birthday birds! The sixth graders do a service project at the beginning of each year. It is their job to sculpt and glaze 300+ little clay birds. Making this many multiples requires a different set of art skills than spending lots of hours on just one piece, so it's a valuable experience.





The birthday birds were inspired by this project and these little birds a few years ago. When a kiddo comes to art on his or her birthday/gotcha day (or as long as it's the same week), he or she gets to pick out a birthday bird. We do summer bdays in June so that everyone will get one by the end of the school year. The kids LOVE choosing a special bird to take home. Well done sixth graders- thanks for working so hard to brighten someone else's day!