Exploring Art Through Time, Place & Culture is a unit I facilitate every year with Kindergartens. This year I wanted to use stained glass windows as the catalyst to talk about different reasons people make art.

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With my school having a Chapel on campus and values rooted in the Christian faith, rich discussions were had how art can be made to worship and give thanks to God. After looking at stained glass windows from churches and cathedrals around the world, students focused on creating round rose windows.

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Weaving in radial symmetry, students began their windows by folding a black doilies and cutting out shapes along the edges. After opening it up, students used latex glue and stuck their window frames down on clear plastic sheets.

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Once dry, students began layering colored primary colors of acetate. This also allowed students to review color mixing which was from another unit taught earlier in the year.

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To display all 200 rose windows, we used double sided tape at the top and bottom and stuck them to large windows in the stairwells. We secured them all with clear packaging tape along the seams to avoid them falling down from the changing temperatures of the glass.

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The awe from the students and staff when they first walked up the stairs, was truly magical. The colorful light streaming through radial designs cut by our kiddos reflected another reason why people make art; to bring hope, through light and color. In the beautiful words of Amanda Gorman, ‘For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.’