High Schoolers, Kindergarteners Bond Over Art

Wilbur Cross sophomore Rosa Gonzales and East Rock School kindergartener Omar put pencils to paper to draw Sonic and Pikachu — as part of a monthly class-to-class collaboration focused on cartooning and literacy.

Omar and Gonzales were one duo in a group of 25 students from a Wilbur Cross art class taught by Cathy Ramin and an East Rock kindergarten class who met up Friday morning as part of a school year-long partnership.

During Ramin’s cartooning class at Cross on Friday, the students walked over to East Rock School for their monthly visit to its kindergarteners, who also love cartoons and art. 

Ramin’s goal this year is to dive into community-based arts education by getting her high schoolers out and into the neighborhood to learn and practice with visual arts.

While typically some high schoolers are critical about their own art work, they learned Friday from the kindergarteners that perfection is not key. Instead, what’s important is the experience of thinking creatively in the moment and making your imagination come to life on paper.

Friday’s visit made for the fifth one this school year, as Ramin’s high schoolers work toward a long-term goal of practicing their art skills by creating their very own cartoon characters. 

Ramin first reached out to East Rock’s library media specialist, Anneliese Juergensen, with the collaboration idea. Juergensen said she immediately agreed to it because of the opportunities it presents for mentorship, reading, and art for her students. 

Omar told this reporter Friday that he loves being able to draw his favorite characters with Gonzales. He said the high schoolers know a lot and have taught him how to draw his family as cartoon characters.

When the weather gets warmer, Ramin said, she hopes for the kindergarteners to visit their buddies at Cross’ building.

Using the education fundraising platform DonorsChoose, Ramin secured funds to purchase dozens of graphic novels for the students to have inspiration and resources to learn about art techniques used to make characters and storylines in books. The use of graphic novels has also helped the older and younger students better engage with literacy.

Each month when the high schoolers visit, they begin the 45-minute period by reading with the kindergarteners and pointing out characteristics and expressions of the books’ characters. On Friday, as a high schooler read aloud, their kindergarten partner filled a blank page with their rendition of what they heard and saw in the story.

Cross junior Jacdelyn McAdams said Friday that working with the kindergarteners this year has helped to ​“heal my inner child” and see what natural creativity looks like. ​“Their ideas are so colorful and creative. I love seeing the world from their perspective. They’re geniuses,” she said. From ideas like pink sharks and spiky sting rays, McAdams said the younger students have expanded her horizons significantly. 

Senior Breeon McNeil said he enjoys telling jokes with the kindergarteners. ​“It feels like a break, but more,” junior Rhoniell Nunez said. 

Junior David Adorno said he wishes he had an opportunity like this when he was in elementary school. Cross junior Abigail Antoine said she had a middle school buddy in first grade and enjoyed seeing someone else’s artistic eye. 

When asked about goals for the remainder of the year, junior Zyi’ar Bell said he hopes to help his buddy improve in speaking English and grow their confidence. Nunez said that he hopes to establish a handshake with his buddy by the end of the year. 

“I’m super proud of all of them,” Ramin said at the end of Friday just as the class walked back to Cross.