Clover (168) — Jefferson Elementary School
Artists
Jefferson Elementary School in North Berwyn — Jennifer Giemza with her 5th Grade Students
Materials Used
Paint, Sharpie, and Glitter
Your website or social media
mrsgsartroom123 / @berwyn98 / bn98.org
Describe your bug and its beauty
Our cicada is covered in color, patterns of stars and tiny polka dots and hearts. We used gold paint to line the form of the wings to make them stand out. The bottom is covered in bright yellow. We used red glitter on the giant eyeballs in honor of this breed of cicada as well as covering the legs with bits of green felt to reflect their spikey legs.
How long do you think you took decorating your bug?
We worked on our cicada for a month, filling in painting time sporadically.
Tell us your Story
The cicadas emerging this year last visited us 17 years ago. What kind of change have you seen in your city, yourself, or someone you know over the last 17 years?
My students were not born 17 years ago, but we are imaging how old we will be in 17 years. My 5th graders will be 28 years old in 17 years. Here are some of the ideas my students came up with: professional soccer player living in Madrid Spain, working for the Women's Soccer League, working as a veterinarian, horse trainer, probably a teacher, living with my parents and taking care of them by working as a pharmacist, graduated from business school and I own my own company, living in Mexico on the beach running my own restaurant, a scientist exploring space and writing poetry, harvesting crops as my hobby. And for myself, a veteran art teacher, I see myself surrounded by a few grandchildren as we walk along a beach somewhere in the world remembering this moment in my history of taking care of a plaster cicada and the wonders of my students imagination as we tackled the challenge of what to do with this empty, white, plaster sculpture commemorating this 17 year event in the insect world. What fun we had!!!