UPDATE: Winners have been selected! Click here to view.
Calling all R.H. Dana students! We want to know how YOU will show your voice! You are invited to participate in this year's National PTA Reflections program, a national PTA initiative centered around the arts.
Based on this year's theme "Show Your Voice!", students may submit various forms of original artwork to be entered into the competition. Discussions will take place in class with teachers in support of this opportunity. Students may work on entries at home or during lunch in our school art studio (Tuesdays and Fridays) where materials will be provided.
Entries are due by Monday, September 26th!
How to enter
First, let's get creative! Does your student like to dance, take photos, write short stories or poems, or maybe they love to draw? There are so many options! Their creations must be original, and can be from any of these categories:
Dance Choreography - your student is the choreographer
Film Production - your student is the producer of a fictional or non-fictional video in a style such as: animation, narrative, documentary, multimedia, etc.
Literature - your student is the author of a poem, short story, essay, etc.
Music Composition - your student is the composer of their own music
Photography - your student is the photographer of a single photo, panoramic, photomontage, etc.
Visual Arts - your student may create carpentry, ceramics, collages, photographic collages (multiple photos cut/pasted), computer-generated image, crafts, design, dioramas, drawing, jewelry, kites, mobiles, painting, printmaking, sculpture, wind chimes, etc.
For in-depth information and rules on each category please visit this page under "2022-23 Rules by Category". You will find submission requirements including: accepted formats, file sizes and types, audio and video lengths, as well as many helpful tips for each category.
Artwork should be submitted to your child's teacher by Monday, September 26th and must include the student name and teacher name.
If you are submitting a video, email it directly to kbdoorn@gmail.com and include student name and teacher name. Video length, file type, etc. can be found on this page under "2022-23 Rules by Category".
What does "show your voice" mean?
It’s however the student defines it. It can mean showing us your true self, it can mean giving a voice to a cause. It can mean how you see the world, or what you want the world to know about you. The point is for them to reflect on that and decide what it means to them.
Need Some Inspiration?
Last year the theme was "I will change the world by..."and we had 75 students submit entries to the Reflections program! The below are just a few of our school level winners. Visit our Reflections gallery to view the other winner's work as well as all of our student's creations.
For other ideas and inspiration, you may also check out last year's California State PTA Reflections Art Program award recipients: See last year's state winners
More About the Program
According to the California PTA website, the Reflections Art Program has been bringing the arts to life for more than 10 million students since 1969. The goal is to increase community awareness of the importance of arts in education.
R.H. Dana will plan to create another art gallery from 10/3-10/6 in the MPR. This is also when we'll hold our judging! Winners from our school will be selected from each of the categories mentioned above, then submitted to the district level competition. If we have winners from R.H. Dana at the district level, their artwork will be submitted to the next level up, and so on.
Let's go Whales! We can't wait to see your inspiring artwork and see how you will show your voice!
Donations Needed
We are also looking for a few donations for our art room: kids scissors, glue sticks, painting canvases (8½ X 11 or 11 X 14), and modeling clay. Or, if you have items in your homes that you’d like to recycle that might serve well as art tools (e.g. paper towel or toilet paper rolls, glitter, crepe paper, materials pieces/scraps, little bottles, etc.), we’d love to have that as well. A box will be in the front office marked “Reflections Donations” beginning Sept. 5th.
Still have questions?
Email: kbdoorn@gmail.com
Winners
The following are the students who received Awards of Excellence and their artwork will proceed to next level of PTA Reflections within our district.
Visual Arts
Mia Schnitzer - 1st grade
Leslie Osorio - 5th grade
Visual Arts Special Artist
Yuliette Robles
Photography
Enni Maanpaa - 2nd grade
Film Production
Miles Rowe - 1st grade
Jake Doorn - 3rd grade
Music Composition
Anna Starkweather - 2nd grade
Oliver Bright - 3rd grade
Honorable Mention
The following are the students who received Honorable Mention Awards. Their artwork will not proceed to the next level, but we wanted to recognize their great work!
Visual Arts
Finn Ehrlich - 1st grade
Sophie English - 2nd grade
Xavier Francis - 4th grade