Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to move classrooms mid-year to accommodate all my students. A temporary wall had to be put up to separate my new classroom and the library. Since the wall is temporary, we could paint it!
Due to the political climate in our country, this year I wanted to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day more meaningful for students. That is why I created our Mural Project. Before beginning the project, we learned about what Martin Luther King Jr. did for our country and talked about the similarities between Dr. King’s movement and the Black Lives Matter movement. We discussed how far we need to go as a country to live out Dr. King’s dream and how we can all be activists. We learned about what it is like to go to a march and even made our own picket signs about issues we are passionate about to share with the class.
Our final project included each student painting their own section of the mural. We started the project by having students brainstorm what each of their dreams were. Then the students sketched out their mural. After this, the students created a presentation about their dreams and their mural. Finally, each student got a chance to paint their mural onto our temporary wall.
The mural provides the students a daily reminder of what they are working towards. The students love showing it off to other students and staff. This project also helped students to develop a stronger understanding of what they want to achieve as well as how they can support their peers in our classroom.
By Sara Barsaloux
Sara Barsaloux teaches fifth grade in Glendale Heights, Illinois.