LINCOLN STUDENTS TURN CLASSROOM INTO ARCADE
STUDENTS GET INSPIRED BY WALKWAY MURAL ethel Park
LINCOLN STUDENTS TURN CLASSROOM INTO ARCADE
The students in Kelly Clouser’ s classroom at Lincoln Elementary School put their imaginations to work by creating their own arcade games and opening an Arcade in their classroom for the students in Don Hays’ classroom.
The students created their games out of recycled materials and they did a great job of making arcade favorite games such as air hockey, a claw machine with stuffed animals, marble run, ping pong toss, knockout, pool table, plinko and skee ball.
The first and second graders invited the third and fourth graders from Mr. Hays’ room into the Arcade to try their hand at the games and to win some prizes. Mr. Hays’ students earned tickets to play the games by demonstrating good behavior and turning in their class work and home work on time.
Ms. Clouser’ s students were inspired to create their arcade after reading“ The Most Magnificent Thing,” which is a story about a little girl and her dog, who is her best friend, who together try to create“ The
Contestants could pretend they were on“ The Price Is Right” when they played Plinko in the Lincoln Arcade.
Most Magnificent Thing.” The little girl knows exactly
Ms. Clouser and her students who created the Arcade Games.
what it will look like and how it will work, but every time she tries to build her idea, it just keeps turning out wrong. But through her persistence, and encouragement from her best canine pal, she finally puts it all together.
Through this story, Ms. Clouser’ s students learned important lessons about perseverance, perspective, creativity, and character that are prevalent throughout this wildly inventive story.
The students really embraced the challenge of creating the carnival games and Ms. Clouser used this activity as a natural tiein to learning about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math( STEM).
Ms. Clouser’ s students wore special t-shirts with a red bow tie on them for the arcade activity.
STUDENTS GET INSPIRED BY WALKWAY MURAL ethel Park
BETHEL PARK SCHOOL DISTRICT
Independence Middle School students get inspired on a daily basis as they walk up and down the ramp that connects the first and second floors of their school, thanks to a mural created by Bethel Park High School junior Grace Evans.
The theme of the mural is“ Be Yourself,” and it suggests ways to do that, including“ Be Definitive,”“ Be Inclusive,”“ Be Supportive,”“ Be Creative,”“ Be Inventive,”“ Be Innovative,”“ Be Reflective” and“ Be Expressive.”
The mural was created as Grace’ s Girl Grace Evans in front of her mural. Scout Gold Award project. The Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouting. The project took Grace over 40 hours to complete from sketching to painting.
Grace created the mural because she wanted to promote acceptance, diversity and the theme of“ being yourself.” She sent emails to Bethel Park school Principals to see if they had any room in their building for a mural of this size and IMS Principal David Muench knew he had the right place for the mural.
Grace hand drew every image for the mural and projected it in color on the wall at IMS. She had six helpers paint the mural on the wall over the course of three painting sessions, lasting up to 10 hours each. Because the mural is so high on the wall, Grace and
64 Bethel Park
her helpers had to climb on scaffolding to complete the painting process.
“ I selected this project for my Gold Award because it combined my talent for art with my desire for everybody to accept everybody else for who they are,” Grace explained.“ My overall goal was to create something that everyone could look at and relate to.”
As the project progressed, Grace especially enjoyed seeing people’ s reactions as the project came together. The response to her artwork and message has been positive.
Grace would like to pursue fine arts when she goes off to college and she would like to work as an Art Teacher or Professor when she graduates from college.“ I am also interested in studying the relationship between art and people and hope to carry out my research in college, especially in regards to how people feel and see the world. The Myers-Briggs personality types have always been a huge inspiration for me and they play a huge role in my mural, as well as my day-to-day life,” she said.
She is especially thankful for the assistance she received from the custodial staff at IMS, who assisted her when necessary and helped her to clean up.