Imagine being a teenager in the south of France in 1940. While walking your dog, he disappears into a hole in the ground. The hole led to an undiscovered cave that would become a French national treasure and an archaeological wonder of prehistoric art.
Luther Elementary Art Teacher Shari Henderson took all of her students on this virtual journey as they learned about Lascaux and cave drawing. Her former students remember that Mrs. Henderson makes learning a complete experience weaving history, social studies or math into her art projects. She transformed her classroom to look “cave-like,” with students, from Kindergarten to fourth grade, crawling through a tunnel to enter a cool cave that had hollow sounds of trickling water and low-lighting. The students textured their papyrus (ever resourceful, she found the “papyrus” brown paper at a garage sale) and used oil pastels to make pictures reminiscent of the drawings they observed by studying the cave walls of Lascaux.
The artwork has been featured as a “cave walk” in a hall at the elementary school but will soon come down. With all of the talk about teacher walkouts and school safety and other stressors, it’s a good reminder that Luther teachers keep doing what they do, bringing education to life.
