Happy Holidays 2014 from Memphis Street Academy Arts!

This holiday season, our young artists not only continued their tradition of sharing the gift art with cards for kids at the Children's Crisis Treatment Center. They also made handmade holiday cards for firefighters at local firehouses.

Students also did some cooperative learning, working together to research and create posters depicting what the holiday season looks like all around the world, from Israel to the Congo to Belgium and back home here in the United States...

 

The posters were hung in the hallway outside the first floor art room, so all staff, faculty, and students could get a multicultural and multinational view of the holiday season. Our scholars love giving the gift of art every year, and look forward to sharing more with you when we come back to class in 2015. Happy Holidays, everyone!

Memphis Street Arts Holiday Cards 2013

This year, we kept up our holiday tradition with the Memphis Street Academy Arts program. Our students once again made a handmade holiday card for every student in the Therapeutic Nursery at the Children's Crisis Treatment Center (CcTC).

Our students viewed a public service announcement about CcTC, and discussed how they could use art to make someone's day brighter. Students played to their individual artistic strengths to make sure they made the best cards possible. Some students use reference from the internet. Others freehand sketched original ideas. Others used intricate cut paper designs for their cards.

Memphis Street Academy students were thrilled to take part in this this Caring School Community project. A few students have seen firsthand the amazing work CcTC does (either for themselves or family members), so they were particularly passionate about this project.

Students not only made enough cards for all the kids in the Therapeutic Nursery, but enough to give to CcTC staff as well. When the cards were dropped off to CcTC, Therapeutic Nursery Director Nicholas Bisaccia explained that the cards would be distributed to children when they receive gifts of books for the holiday.

CcTC Therapeutic Nursery Director Nicholas Bisaccia, welcoming the delivery of Memphis Street Academy Art students' 2013 holiday cards

Memphis Street Artists Design Cards for CcTC Kids

Some of our Fifth Grade artists show off their handmade holiday cards.

This holiday season, many of the art students at Memphis Street Academy Charter School designed cards for the children and staff in the Therapeutic Nursery at the Children's Crisis Treatment Center of Philadelphia (CcTC). CcTC is an amazing place of healing for children in the area.

  

Eighth Grader Anastacia Perez gave a framed Christmas-themed comic featuring her favorite Disney characters.

When the young artists heard the story of the strength and resilience of the children at CcTC, they were happy to "pay it forward" by spreading some holiday cheer. Pictured above is one of the 5th grade classes who designed cards. Our scholars decorated their little handmade masterpieces with assorted holiday imagery to warm the heart of a CcTC child or staff member.

At first, I thought I was teaching students a lesson on why it is better to give than receive. However, when I saw how hard these students worked and read the heartfelt messages inside the cards, I realized they are all well aware of the power of sharing and generosity.

To read more about CcTC, you can click here go to their website.