New London Students Take A Wee Trip To A Faerie Village

Fourth-grade students from Nathan Hale Magnet Elementary School visited the Florence Griswold Museum Wee Faerie Village on Thursday as part of their first six-week integration unit of English Language Arts and Social Studies with Visual Arts.

Their first unit focuses on creating a community. Students will study different types of texts and media to think critically about how different types of literature and media explain and help create communities.

The school's new partnership with the Mystic Arts Center will help students combine visual arts, social studies and reading complex texts into arts integration units. Students will also be able to travel to the Mystic Arts Center to participate in classes and enjoy other arts experiences. Teaching Artists from the arts center are expected to plan with teachers to continue to integrate the arts within their courses.

During their visit to the Wee Faerie Village on Thursday morning, students were encouraged to use Artful Thinking techniques to write in their field journals. What do they see, think and wonder about the community of the Wee Faerie Village? How does the village, in all of its different installations, make a community?

Students will then share what they believe creates a community and take part in writing a newsletter.

At the end of their six-week unit, students will go to the Mystic Arts Center where they will each create a structure. All of their structures will be put together to create an entire community in which parents and local community members will be invited to see. Those attending the students' exhibit will also get a chance to read their newsletters and field journals.

The new programming - which will extend to additional elementary grades this fall- is made possible by grants from the Palmer Fund.

A Press Release from New London School District