Grade 4/5 students at Wellington Elementary School became builders during Black History Month, using thousands of bricks to create portrait mosaics of five Black trailblazers and hosted an art show to highlight their work.
On March 7, the entire school was invited to see their finished portraits, with the builders serving as ‘gallery employees’, answering any questions and discussing the history behind the portraits.
More than 30,000 pieces were used to replicate photographs into brick mosaics of Harriet Tubman, Katherine Johnson, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.
“Experience has taught me that hands-on fun activities are a sure way of getting my students engaged and excited about learning,” said teacher Lorianne De Spiegelaere.
“As we progressed through February, exposing my students to a project of this magnitude was an exciting way to spread awareness and learn more about black history,” De Spiegelaere added.
Along with daily designated time to work on the project, students also gave up their own time to continue their builds, so they would be finished on time.
“We had kids asking to stay in during recess,” De Spiegelaere said, “They even worked through their lunch to get a few more building minutes in.”
The students held a canteen fundraiser to be able to build and host the art show, offsetting the cost of the bricks, baseplates and easels.
“It got stressful sometimes when you don’t have all the pieces,” Grade 5 student Ben Peters said. “But to see the final outcome makes me really happy.”
“We’ve been working really hard but after we see the finished project I just keep going because it just looks so cool in the end,” said Abbie Chase.
Ward 6 Trustee Lisa Swan, Prescott Mayor Gauri Shankar and Augusta Township Mayor Jeff Shaver also attended the show.
“I think it’s wonderful how engaged the kids were. They told me how they raised funds to get the bricks and how they didn’t know a lot about the subject matter,” said Swan. “I learned things about these historical figures that I never knew before.”
“It’s great to teach our kids different cultures and different movements. We have a multicultural class and it’s good for them to learn that,” said Shankar.
The mosaic building process video can be found on our UCDSB YouTube channel.
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Upper Canada District School Board
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