Special Needs Residency - Final Program 2015

Happy New Year! K.I.D.S. Art Education is so proud of all we accomplished in 2015 and we look forward to the new exhibitions, partners, educators and students we'll be working with this year!

But before we can move on to the exciting programs ahead, we must look back to the amazing work done by our Special Needs Residency students this past December. Teaching Artist Ruth Wetzel and P.S. 15 Special Education Teacher Julie Cavanagh developed a hugely successful program supporting the students' study of the Solar System.

All semester long, students learned about the nature and components of the Milky Way the planets' orbits around the sun. Each student was assigned his or her own planet and created representations and presentations of their planet based on research. Individual projects - making craters on the surface of the moon, painting stardust and space matter, creating to-scale floor models of the galaxy - culminated in an interactive game that students played with visiting classrooms at the end of the term.

The final game not only showcased the students' creativity, but challenged their motor skills, problem solving abilities and knowledge of the solar system. They created the game board (made from a 5' square of Tyvek), the game pieces, the dice, and the questions they would answer correctly to advance in the game.

The game in action - all of the planets line up and wait their turn. After correctly answering the questions written by their classmates, players roll the dice and move around the board. The first to visit each of the 8 planets wins the game. Here they are enjoying their creation!

We are immensely proud of the hard work done by these students and are honored to be working with them again this spring! Many, many thanks to Ruth and to the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation, who supported this program in 2015. We look forward to more successful partnerships ahead!