Westridge Fourth Graders Write Creative Short Stories Starring California Animals in Interdisciplinary Project

Traditionally, each year in Lower School Art Teacher Val Trimarchi’s (“Ms. T”) art class, 4th grade students create small ceramic sculptures of animals. This year, the project transformed into a fun, interdisciplinary endeavor, combining visual arts, language arts, history, and STEM.

Students began by studying California history and reading several stories and legends from indigenous tribes in California. They then selected a native California animal (including jackrabbits, bobcats, hawks, coyotes, and more) in art class to make out of clay, as usual, but in Fourth Grade Teacher Susi Pettersson’s class, students went a step further by writing a short, five-paragraph story starring their chosen animal.

“This project was fun because in each class, we had the flexibility to teach the students about our subject,” said Pettersson, “and the students have been able to make connections across each class through studying the same animal.”

In Pettersson’s class, the students learned about dialogue and quotation mark placement for their stories. As part of the assignment, they were required to include a lesson or a moral within their story, and when they’d finished typing their completed stories just before Winter Break, students read each other’s stories.

Romy S.’s story “How the Deer Got Antlers” was about a deer (her California animal) struggling to survive a fight with a coyote. “The deer runs so fast that he crashes into a tree,” said Romy, “and he can’t get the branches off his head. So he uses them to defeat the coyote.” The lesson in her story? “Most things have meaning,” she said.

Coming up after break, in Monica Sanchez-Langley’s STEM class, students will learn about the structures and functions of their animals. The completed animal sculptures from Ms. T’s class will be displayed in the Main Hall alongside the students’ short stories.

Westridge School, 324 Madeline Drive, Pasadena, (626) 799-1053 ext. 200 or visit www.westridge.org.