Lower Elementary went on a day-long field trip to Peffer Park. From the park, they walked to the Miami Art Museum. Students investigated processes used by Native Americans to create artworks, combined ideas with materials and techniques to make a work of art, learned to respond to art, and learned how art interprets time and culture. This is perfect timing, as they kick off a unit on Native American history this week which will include gentle but honest conversation about the history of indigenous people in North America and the impact of colonization.
Returning to Peffer Park, they had lunch in the outdoors followed up by a hike into the woods to visit the bluffs. The erosion at the bluffs provides the perfect example of what exists below the surface of the Earth. At the base of the bluffs, they found a large deposit of clay, similar to what we had been working with that morning. They discussed how Native Americans harvested clay from places like this to create pottery. Students spent much of the afternoon in the creek having a muddy, wet, utterly delightful time.
