School Wide Themes and Units: Building Community

A lot of my buildings really build on the concept of community with students and how much it means to be a valuable part of, and contribute to, a healthy community. One of the ways that I contribute to that idea with my students is by doing school wide themes or units.

Unfortunately, the themes are just my own across K-6 and don't match with core classes (YET!) but, I still believe it makes my students feel a little more connected with each other. Once I did the theme idea a few times I started getting more questions from students and staff about what other grades were doing and more students stopping and looking at displays. Overall, this works great for me with the way I put displays together, usually mixing grade levels. But it doesn't work great as far as timelines go. Typically, and I think this is true with most Art Educators, projects take a lot longer with older grades because they tend to be higher level and multi-stepped. This means it could be a month or two (with my schedule at least) before K- 6 is all done with a theme to display it. However, in my eyes, that little blurp is totally worth having great displays that include all grade levels. Even if the projects are not mixed in the display they are at least all up at the same near each other...

ANYWHO! My final K-6 theme of the school year was portraits! Stay tuned for each project you see!

"I Ain't Gonna Paint No More" Portraits with K & 1

Symmetry Twins with 2nd Grade

3rd Grade Abstract Portraits
4th Grade Food Faces
5th Grade Mono-Print Self Portraits and Zentangles
6th Grade Abstract Transparency Portraits 

McDill Elementary...

Jefferson Elementary...

Kennedy Elementary...

Do you do themes or units school wide in your buildings? Does it make you feel more like a community? Do you think students get the connection to community? Or should I spell it out?