Students will be creating their own unique pottery bowl for the Empty Bowl project. This is a service learning project connecting school, home and community. The Bowls will be sold, filled with soup, during a school wide Soup and Bread dinner. The dinner will also be run by the students during the 1998-1999 school year. All proceeds raised will be contributed to the local Food Pantry. From a historical perspective, the students will learn the impact of poverty on society and gain important social awareness and insights regarding their neighbors in our small community. They will experience the joy of helping those in need by working together to make a difference. This project provides a unique opportunity to focus on the arts in an integrated curriculum connecting and responding to the needs of the community.

The grant award will be spent on the following materials: clay, glazes, poster and newspaper advertising materials, placemat art and kiln usage costs. This is a hands on tactile, kinetic art experience. The students will learn various techniques for working with the medium of clay and also graphic arts through their advertising campaign.

The Empty Bowl project will increase the time available to teach pottery and clay techniques. Since the bowls will be taken to the public, it is a wonderful opportunity for the students and the art department to gain positive recognition for their efforts and achievements. It is a chance to show the community the importance of building art into wholistic education curriculum, thus motivating the drive to keep the arts flourishing in the schools. The Empty Bowl project will build leadership and team skills. It will bolster self esteem, as the children grow from the experience of thinking beyond themselves. Hopefully it will foster the desire to be involved in other such worthwhile service to the community in the future.

Art Web: http://www.onekama.k12.mi.us/art