A Glimpse of Speyer Students Learning About and Celebrating Black History Month and Lunar New Year!
In February, we celebrated Lunar New Year and Black History Month. During this time, both inside and outside of our classrooms, our students have been exploring and learning about various cultures within our community and recognizing the central role black and brown Americans have had on our society! Below is little round–up of just a few examples of this community building and learning in action!
— Speyer first graders have been discussing how important it is to amplify voices that were once (and still are!) silenced. In 1A, they have been exploring various read-alouds about Black Americans who made some amazing accomplishments in our society, such as Patricia's Vision. This book is about Patricia Bath who dreamed of being an ophthalmologist at a time when becoming a doctor wasn’t a career option for most women — especially African-American women. She co-founded the American Institute for the Prevention of Blindness, invented a specialized laser for removing cataracts, and became the first African-American woman doctor to receive a medical patent. Meanwhile in 1B, the classroom has a fabulous wall of people and during each morning meeting, the first graders have been learning about a new "person of the day"!
— Speyer students in the Choir with Reaching for the Arts afterschool class joined other performers from neighboring schools and organizations on stage at the prestigious Manhattan School for Music in celebration of Black History Month. The students performed "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye and "Could you be Loved" by Bob Marley!
— Our Kindergarteners learned about the holiday of Lunar New Year with LS Art Teacher Ms. Isabelle. She shared the story of the Great Race with students and explored how this is the Year of the Dragon. The students did a draw-along activity using dry erase boards to learn how to draw a dragon step-by-step and then they drew their own dragons on large red paper and added color and embellishments!
— During the recent Speyer Jewish Student Affinity Group meeting, the theme was the Jewish role in the Civil Rights Movement. The group welcomed guest speaker Aviva Zweben, who spoke with K-8 students about her experience attending the March on Washington in 1963.
— Speyer fourth graders are studying the Gee's Bend Quilters in art class. Gee's Bend, Alabama is surrounded on three sides by the Alabama River, making it geographically isolated. The town's land is a former plantation and the majority of its 300 inhabitants are direct descendants of the slaves who worked the plantation. The culture and livelihood of the community centers around the quilts made there, and as the women are the quilters, the women of Gee's Bend lead the community. It wasn't until 2002 that the quilts brought art world fame to Gee's Bend. An exhibit of the quilts toured museums across the country, and today there are quilts made by Gee's Bend artists in the collections of scores of notable museums including the Whitney, MoMA and the Met. Our fourth graders tied this study to the artist Amy Sherald's portrait of Michelle Obama — the patterns on Obama's dress are a nod to the Gee's Bend quilts! Students recently each picked out a print of a Gee's Bend quilt and working with cotton paper and watercolor pencils, they are attempting to replicate the patterns, or a portion of the patterns, they see in the quilts.
— The entire Speyer community gathered for an all-school assembly featuring a performance by dancers and educators from the New York Chinese Cultural Center (NYCCC), a nonprofit cultural and educational institution dedicated to deepening the understanding and appreciation of Chinese culture through the arts in the global and local communities. It was a fabulous showcase of a variety of dances, including the Lion Dance and the Chopsticks Dance. The interactive assembly also featured tutorials in Kung Fu and ribbon dancing, when Speyer students were invited to participate and join in the fun!