Southside kindergartners make colorful mosaics

Southside Elementary kindergartners held a dedication for their stepping-stone project Wednesday, Nov. 30, in the school’s courtyard. The stepping-stone project was a collaboration between Susan Nation’s kindergarten class, Youth Experiencing Art (YEA Arts) and two students from Ringling College of Art and Design, Chitra Patel and Lindsay Miser.

The Ringling students came once a week for eight weeks to teach the students about mosaics and helped them create their own miniature stepping-stone mosaics using glass, paint and cement. The students also worked together to make seven larger stepping-stone mosaics to go in the courtyard at Southside Elementary.

Katie Armstrong, 5, was excited to be able to present her mini stepping-stone to her parents at the dedication.

“I think they are going to like it and give me a big hug and be so happy and proud,” she said with a big smile.

Sophie Caragiulo, 5, already has plans for her mosaic stepping-stone.

“Mine will go close to my flowers,” she said.

And Will Hall, 6, commented on the difference between making the larger stepping-stones for the school and making the smaller ones for the students.

“The little one is easy because it was easier to press (the stones) into the cement, and on the bigger ones we had to put a lot of stones.”

The three students agreed that they learned a lot from the project and really enjoyed working with Patel and Miser.

“They were very fun and helped us learn about new things that we never knew,” said Katie.