Story Telling Mosaic in Binghamton, NY

Ms. Culligan's second graders finished up the year with some very cool artistic achievements under their belts. As you may remember they were working with story teller Regi Carpenter on creating a story of their own and telling it in a dynamic way. The story they made up was about how the skunk got it's stripe. They developed a cast of animal and insect characters and a plot that unfolds in and near a neighborhood grocery store. Students also made visual representations of the story with clay tiles. They glazed the tiles and their art teacher, Athena Negros, fired them, had the outdoor wall prepared, and purchased all the necessary supplies for installation of a outdoor mosaic. On June 2nd the whole school and many parents gathered to enjoy the story of "How the Skunk Got it's Stripe" in the school auditorium. Students used small props of their own making and choreographed movements as well as words to tell the story. Afterward there was a party! That week and the next Ms. Negros, Ms. Culligan, and Jill Browne, the Challenge Enrichment Specialist, who had been instrumental in the entire project, and I set the tiles and grouted them on a brick wall next to one entrance to the school. It came out beautifully! Ms. Browne plans to have a booklet installed just inside the school that contains the story the students made so that anyone can reference it. There is also the intention that this will be an ongoing project and that mosaics will continue to make their way around the beautiful building that is Ben Franklin Elementary School.