Assistance League’s Elementary Arts Discovery Enhances Learning.

Established in 2014, Assistance League Diablo Valley’s® Operation School Bell’s® Elementary Arts Discovery Program encourages students’ creative expression through multisensory art. While vision is the obvious sense when exploring art, the senses of sound, touch, smell and taste are also engaged.

Committee volunteers prepared for a classroom presentation by researching each lesson’s topic, gathering, organizing and bagging art supplies and providing a question-based slide presentation to illustrate the learning task.

At a recent Elementary Arts classroom question-based presentation, students at Shore Acrea Elementary School (Mt. Diablo Unified School District) learned about the various civilization’s use of art to secure much needed rain, i.e., great banquets, ornate costumes and rain sticks. Students were then encouraged to make use of provided instructions and art supplies to make rain sticks. Volunteers then walked around the room and provided pieces of wrapping paper to complete the project. The sound of raindrops collecting on windowpanes gave added meaning to the endeavor.

The Elementary Arts Discovery presentation concluded when students gathered at the front of the classroom to share their creations. The lesson was a result of meaningful classroom preparation/presentation, cultural accuracy, creativity and “kids learning from kids.”

To learn about Assistance League Diablo Valley’s other hands-on programs, which are funded by its thrift shop located next to the Park Theater in Lafayette, please visit: assistanceleague.org/diablo-valley.