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Connetquot and EIMS Students Collaborate on Eagle-Themed Art Project

Two East Islip art teachers – Connetquot Elementary School’s Christina Spera-Bartlett and East Islip Middle School’s Joy Taylor – recently partnered on a cross-grade art project connecting second grade and sixth grade students through a shared study of bald eagles.

Students in both grades viewed live bald eagle nest cameras, observing eagle parents hatch and care for two eaglets. For many sixth graders, the experience brought back memories of watching the same eagle cam when they were in second grade with Spera-Bartlett.

The second graders began the project by learning blending techniques using chalk pastels. They created backgrounds depicting different times of day – daytime, nighttime or sunset – by carefully blending colors by hand.

These backgrounds were then shared with the sixth graders, who built upon the younger students’ work. Using reference materials and guidance provided by Spera-Bartlett, sixth graders learned about silhouettes and used India ink to create detailed scenes featuring eagles, nests, eaglets and trees.

To complete the collaboration, each sixth grader wrote a note to the second grader whose artwork they enhanced, reflecting on both their current work and their own memories of the eagle cam experience.

 

A young boy in a navy blue shirt is sitting at a wooden table, intently focused on a document in front of him, with a colorful painting visible in the background.
A young boy is intently focused on writing something on a piece of paper placed on a wooden table, surrounded by various classroom materials in the background.
A group of young students are gathered around a table, engaged in a collaborative activity involving colorful paper and materials in a classroom setting.
Two young women are sitting at a desk, intently focused on their work. The background includes various shelves, cabinets, and other office equipment, suggesting this is a classroom or workspace setting.
Two students are seated at a table, one drawing a black and white image of a tree branch, while the other is focused on writing or drawing something on a piece of paper. The classroom setting, with stacked chairs in the background, suggests this is taking place in an educational environment.
A classroom setting with students engaged in various activities, including a young girl sitting at a table and a boy working on something in the foreground.
A large black bird, likely a raven, perches on a bare tree branch against a blue sky background.
A silhouetted raven perches on a branch against a vibrant, colorful sky in the background.
A silhouetted tree stands against a vibrant pink and orange sky, creating a striking contrast between the dark branches and the colorful background.
A silhouetted bird perches on a branch against a vibrant sunset sky, casting a shadow on the ground below.
The image depicts two silhouetted birds perched on a branch against a blue sky background.