Earlier this year, the Kennedy Longfellow, with support from The Lesley Tech Team, was fortunate to receive a Mass Cultural Council Grant to support an artist in residency with local artist Anne Lilly. Students in the 5th Grade worked collaboratively with science and art curriculum to create whimsical kinetic sculptures. After learning about animal adaptations in science with Mrs. English and garden coordinator, Shay Chess students begin to create hybrid animals, they had thoughtful and critical discussions about why their animals would have the adaptations that they were creating, what kind of habitat they would live in, what they would need to survive and much much more, before we knew it the conversation had moved from being based in art and science but into geography and beyond.
The next step was to come into the art room where students worked with Anne Lily, learning about her kinetic work and they starting to examine household simple machines, examining them and drawing the mechanisms that made them work building the base knowledge they would need to create their own machines.
Following those experiences students began working to bring their vision of their animals to life. First with creating habitats and the creatures and then building the mechanical mechanism to create movement in their artwork. Working in pairs and groups of three the students were simply amazing as they used their knowledge from science, problem solving using, reflecting and revising. Throughout the process Anne was able to work with classes giving feedback and sharing expertise with the students, giving students an very authentic experience.If you’d like to learn more please come to the publishing party hosted by Ms. Kilton and the 5th graders in the Activity room Monday April, 4th at 8am.
Photo credit: 
Jacy Edelman and Amanda Kilton