From Stella:

This year we have been studying immigration. We went to a Jacob Lawrence exhibit at the MOMA as a field trip. We saw all 60 paintings of the Great Migration. When we were there we had to observe his painting style. We saw the way he only had one palate for all the paintings so all the paintings look sort of alike but also vastly different because, of the way he used his shapes and the feeling he put into each and every painting. Some of the colors he used were: dark brown, purple, banana yellow, and gray blue. At the time we didn’t know what we were going to do. We had a homework assignment to make a vivid scene of our childhood in Jacob Lawrence’s style. After we saw the exhibit we tried to make our own paintings inspired by Jacob.

We have interviewed people about the exhibit and this is what they said:

Ann, the art teacher: I am very moved by the story of the Great Migration and also really like all of his bold lines and his colors.

Estelle: I liked looking at all of his paintings in real life because I could see all of his brush strokes and I could sort of see the steps it took to make his paintings in the Migration Series.

Tess: I thought it was interesting because he uses a lot of different colors.

Rest time with Dotty
by:Clarissa

In my painting I have three people Mia, Stella and me in the fours. We are playing with Dotty at rest time. Dotty was a bunny from fours she was white with black dots. I remember our rest time spots were near Dotty so we would always poke her and play with her.

This painting is memorable because they were one of my first friends and I became closer to them being close to them and playing with them. This moment fits into my story of my lower school journey because it is a step closer to arriving at middle school, and a step closer to making more friends, and a step closer to getting older.

More from Clarissa:
We have been learning a little bit about the Great Migration. The Great Migration was when the African Americans moved from the south for a better life more or less. Jacob Lawrence painted a series of paintings about the Great Migration. There are a total of sixty paintings, thirty are at Moma, the other half is at the Phillips Collection. A while ago MOMA had all sixty paintings in their museum so our class went to see them. Our teachers got inspired by them and decided that we are going to make our own series of paintings of our lower school migration because we are moving up to middle school.

They told us to write down 5-6 memories of the lower school and make a star next to our favorite one. After choosing our favorite memory we drew a sketch of it in the style of Jacob Lawrence. After that we went downstairs to start the painting of our memory. My memory was in the fours. At rest time Stella, Mia and I were by the bunny Dottie and we would play with her and poke her. At our moving up ceremony we are going to hang up our paintings behind us. All of the memories are really special and memorable-Clarissa

Some thoughts on the process by Andrei and Diego:

At the Art Museum called MOMA, We saw the artwork of Jacob Lawrence. We made paintings of our favorite memories in lower school. In the painting we tried to capture the specific art style of Jacob Lawrence. Like Jacob Lawrence, we only used a few colors and didn’t put in a lot of facial details. It was quite challenging to only have a maximum of eight colors: brown, dark green, light green, orange, yellow, purple, blue, and black. A fellow classmate compliments that: “I really like how everybody captured how Jacob Lawrence paints and the style of his paintings.” Another classmate dislikes the point that it was a painting, they would have preferred it to be a drawing. But we didn’t look drawings by Jacob Lawrence, we looked at his paintings.

Our Lower School Migration Series:

The Yellow Crayon
by Julia:

This painting is a memory of me in the fours. I was listening to Beth tell me the Yellow Crayon story. It isn’t the best story to me now but I’m not sure why but I used to think it was the coolest story ever. The story is about Beth when she was a little girl. She was in her car with her parents and she was drawing a picture. She was coloring in the sun yellow with a yellow crayon. And she and her parents got out of the car to have a picnic and Beth put the crayon in the back of the car. By the time she got back the yellow crayon was melted and she had to finish coloring in the sun orange. When I told Beth I remembered the story she was surprised I still remembered it!

Rest Time
by Mia:

My painting is about rest time in the fours. I remember how we used to hate rest time. Our teachers used to tell us when you get older you are going to want rest time. We used to say “We will not want rest time when we get older.” Now I do want rest time. I get really tired. I think we did not like rest time because we did not do a lot of physical activity and we did a lot of playing and we probably would rather be having free time. Because we did that a lot.

In this picture we are all trying to nap but most of us are awake. There is a person who is in the bathroom so his rest spot is empty. Dotty the bunny is in his cage. This moment is important because it stuck with me. I think it stuck with me because I loved the fours and it was something that happened. But this moment was nothing special. This happened at the beginning of my LREI experience.

ETTIMIK
Eiffel Tower That I Made In Kindergarten
By Max:

In kindergarten, I made the Eiffel Tower out of blocks. I made it by myself and I don’t remember any other times from kindergarten.

This moment was important because it was when I was first proud of building something. It is part of my lower school experience because all throughout lower school I have wanted to be an architect and this memory is associated with architecture and architecture is very interesting to study and do.

First Grade Restaurant
by Maeve

Yummy In Your Tummy Cafe

This memory is from our first grade restaurant. I was in Rebecca and Nicole’s first grade. One reason I really loved the restaurant, is I came up with a name for our restaurant. It was The Yummy In Your Tummy cafe. Our class voted with our heads down, when we lifted our heads two options won. The Red Bull ( by Diego) and The Yummy In Your Tummy cafe. Now the whole class had to choose. When I picked my head up there was The Yummy In Your Tummy Cafe! I was so glad! Another reason this moment was special is that I really loved making the food and being a waiter when my parents were there. I was really fun to learn about and go to restaurants. It was cool making food at a restaurant. We learned a lot about yeast. We made really yummy food, which was helpful because then we could get big tips. It was fun to learn the different jobs in the restaurant and how they help.

Fun on the Farm Trip
By Ava

This year on the farm trip, me, Andrei, Simón, and Melissa (one of the farmers), were in the barn when a cow pooped. The poop got on Andrei’s boot, Melissa leg, and Simon’s FACE! After the cow pooped it was silent for a second because we all were so surprised. And then we all started to laugh. I got lucky… no poop got on me!

I had the best time in Lower School and the farm trip was my favorite part because I loved taking care of the animals and having a big sleepover with all my friends. I had alot of fun with all my friends on the farm trip. My favorite part of the farm trip was that nobody got upset and everyone was happy like in the moment that I painted.

3rd grade memory: Swing
by Sophia

This is a picture of me and my really close friend Julia. We are making a song called “I’m A Little Birdie.” We based it on “The Farm Song” which has the same tune. The song Julia and I made goes like this, “Oh, I’m a little birdie trying to fly. But at the same time I think I’m dying. I am in a lava pit, no wait I think I’m dead.” I was the one who made the song, but Julia helped me after. I got the inspiration because Julia and I were playing on the swing and jumping into a pile of leaves that looked something like lava, and in “The Farm Song” there is a part about small birds, so it sort of fits.

This moment is important to me because Julia and I really like the song and a lot of other people like the song, and it helps me remember that special part of the third grade farm trip. This fits in with the rest of the moments from the lower school because everyone has a special moment from some grade they were in, and this is mine.

Farm Trip
By Estelle

One of my favorite lower school memories was at the third grade farm trip when everybody was reading their letters from their parents. When the girls where done Elaine was doing everybody’s hair, even Ella’s hair! In the painting Elaine is braiding my hair while people are opening their letters from their parents.

This memory stuck with me because in the starting of the year I thought Elaine was really scary and mean… but then I really bonded with her and I figured out that she is one of the nicest teachers, and that she wanted us to know that she can be nice and have fun with us when she wants to, but when it’s time to be serious we have to be serious. After that I felt comfortable with Elaine and thought that I could talk to her easily.

Debate
by Alon

This memory is from third grade. In the image, the whole class is having a debate. We did this because we needed to decide who was right in a certain time for a certain reason. A lot of people liked having debates because everyone could argue for their side and have fun that way. We would have fun by being able to argue against classmates, and the teacher didn’t say stop. A strong argument is an argument that makes the judge want your side to win.

This moment is important because it was a big part of third grade and the whole class participated. This moment fits into my Lower School experience by being one of the biggest and funnest parts of third grade. I like to debate because it is what adults do and it is a good feeling to feel like an adult. You craft an argument by first talking to your group and then you decide what each person will talk about when we debate.

Hay Jump
Charlie

The title of my painting is Hay Jump. This memory is from third grade. In my painting, I am in mid air right after jumping into the hay. The barn was a little bit dark and damp, but there was a door open so there was some sunlight. I was really scared to try the hay jump because we were so high up. You did not have to do the hay jump, but it was really fun if you tried it.

This moment is important because I had a lot fun at the third grade farm trip and It was one of my favorite trips at LREI. At the farm trip, we did so many cool things. It was the first time I was away without my parents, and although I was scared at first, once I got there, I found that I wasn’t really scared at all. This trip gave us a lot of time to explore the farm and use our imaginations. The reason why this moment stands out to me is because it helped me become more confident and brave.

The Farm Trip
By Zoe

One of my favorite memories from lower school was the farm trip especially that I got to have my birthday there. It was really really fun. My image is of them giving me my birthday cake. I remember it so well. It was chocolate cake with chocolate ganache.
While we were eating cake Estelle took out Mr. Cookie, a cookie she named three days before.

This moment was important because it was the first time I had been away from home on my birthday. This moment fit into the story of our lower school experience because it was the first time we went on a school trip over night. I really liked the farm and I hope to go again some time.

Shelby
Third Grade
By Antonio

In the picture I’m trying to catch Shelby. Shelby was a crab. I am near the East River by the rocks. We used pretzels as bait. The water is purple because we didn’t have blue. We didn’t catch Shelby there. Ella caught her by herself. Shellby was blue with a hint of red. I used to sit next to the tank and put my nose and she would claw at me.

This moment is important because Shelby escaped, R.I.P Shelby. She probably died. She escaped during spring break when Phil was watching her. That’s my third grade memory.

Geography in fourth grade:
Lower School Memories
By Thomas

This is like one of the maps we made at the beginning of the fourth grade. This is a map of North America. It reminds me of the geography of the whole wide world.. This is important because it reminds me of building puzzles with my dad when I was little. I put the pieces together. It also reminds me of learning to read because in a lot of the books I read the main characters travel a lot.

This painting fits into my Lower School Experience/Journey because, well, it kind of hinted at learning about immigration in fourth grade and helped us know where each country was and it really helped throughout the whole school year. It really helps me to learn because geography can come in handy when you go traveling and meet other people from different countries.

Walking Sheep
by Diego

This is my favorite memory from fourth grade. It is my memory of walking the sheep from the pasture to their pen at the farm. I walked Lila, Clarissa walked Stella, and Pema walked Luna. My painting shows the time when we figured out that if you lie on top of the sheep they run like crazy. I was the one to figure it out, so when I tried the first time I got pulled forward and fell down, then I was dragged by Lila. Then Clarissa tried it. She was more careful, so she didn’t fall down but she did still have to run with Stella. (P.S. Sheep wool is not soft. It more rough and oily.)

This time was important to me because it was a fun time for all of us to get the experience of what life is like on a farm. It is an important part of fourth grade to me because it helped us bond with each other.

A Cow Surprise
By Andrei

My painting takes place at Hawthorne Valley Farm in 4th grade, when Ava, Simon, and I were doing morning chores. The reason it is called Poop face is because Simon actually got some poop on his face (cow poop, the worst kind). We were helping out on the barn, feeding the cows and milking them when one of the cows poop. Normally, when a cow poos, it just goes straight down, but not this time. “That was projectile poo.” Said the farmer who was helping us.

The poo got all over one of my boots, and Simon got a little poo right next to his mouth. He looked, then squealed, me and Ava were speechless, then Simon laughed and that signaled that Ava and I could laugh too.

Walking the Sheep
By Pema

The Farm
By Ally

Night Walk
Fourth grade
By Tess

In fourth grade, we went on a farm trip. We went to Hawthorne Valley Farm. One night after dinner, we went on a night walk. There was a path in the woods that we walked through. It was kind of creepy because it was dark and there were little holes in the ground. Everyone brought flashlights. It was freezing outside, but we all had coats, so we were toasty. There were many different color leaves, but we could not see them because it was pitch black. We could only feel them crunching under our feet. If we pointed our flashlights, we could see huge trees with golden leaves. Then someone said, “Look up!”, and we all saw something red. There was a blood moon. It cast a red glow over the sky. We did not need our flashlights to see it. It was beautiful. We were all looking up for about seven minutes. Then we had to go back. When we got back to the picnic tables by the barn, there was hot apple cider waiting for us. We drank apple cider and sang songs. It was fun.

This moment is important because we were all together, doing the same thing, listening to the teachers, and having fun.

Lunar Eclipse
by Stella

This memory was from the Fourth Grade. I was doing morning chores on the farm and, the lunar eclipse was supposed to happen at 6:00 in the morning. I didn’t get outside until 6:15 that I got outside with my group. We saw the end of the lunar eclipse which means we stared at a reddish, pinkish, silvery moon.

This moment is important to me because it was the first time I had ever seen a lunar eclipse or something so amazing happen to the moon. Also it was at the farm so I could share the moment with my friends. This fits into the lower school experience and growing up because the farm is a chance to have better friendships with friends and teachers. It involves growing up because, when you go to the farm you stay there for 4 days and 3 nights and it helps you get used to being away from home and your parents for a long period of time and helps you to feel and be more independent.