Marengo Elementary School 1st-grader Kaitlyn Webb explores the art of traditional Chinese brush painting of bamboo grasses.
Where the visual arts are concerned, distance learning can feel like an impossibility, especially for our youngest learners. However, within South Pasadena Unified School District, teacher Sarit Swanborn provides engaging art lessons through live sessions and recorded videos (followed by step-by-step pictures) so that even the youngest participants can hear the voice of their art teacher, watch up-close, and then pause and rewind as many times as necessary to learn a new concept and/or technique. Students in 1st grade are currently learning the art form of traditional Chinese brush painting using watercolor on textured paper to create bamboo stalks and leaves.
This week, the students will follow along to draw and cut out a baby panda to place within their paintings. Carefully chosen art lessons and diverse art materials have been bundled and made available for remote learning for every child within SPUSD, in transitional kindergarten through grade 5, to maintain an enriching connection to the arts at a time where fostering imagination and self-expression are more important than ever.
