Bringing together world affairs and art is how Lincoln Elementary’s art teacher helps her students learn about the world around them.
This winter season, second graders are discovering the magical world of “The Mitten,” a Ukrainian folktale.
In her second-grade art class, Marta Kozbur, art teacher at River Forest School District 90 for the past 26 years, ties together what her students are learning outside of the art classroom, world events, and of course, art, into her lesson plans.
This winter season, as her students learn about folktales and fairytales in their reading classes, Kozbur brought in “The Mitten,” a Ukrainian folktale popular in the winter season.
“The Mitten” is a Ukrainian folktale that has undergone variations that can feature different animals but in general, the tale tells the story of various animals who one-by-one seeks out warmth inside of a mitten dropped into the snow during a cold winter night in the forest. Eventually, the mitten cannot hold all the animals and it splits open, spilling the animals into the cold.
For Kozbur, her passion for the beloved folktale can be seen in multiple copies she collects, all from different illustrators and different telling of the classic story. Using this as a segue to speak with students about the different jobs in art that people hold, Kozbur brings various versions of the story to allow students to see the many ways it has been illustrated.
“We talk about the different illustrations in the books and how each illustrator has chosen to illustrate the book depending on the story,” Kozbur said. “The story doesn’t change, the characters change.”
Kozbur also uses the different illustrations to speak deeper about the importance of certain shapes, textiles, and other design choices.
“They can see that they are not just learning about patterns but about patterns from different cultures,” she said.
Henry Metzger, 8, said he practiced a lot before drawing the final version of his mitten, talking a lot with Kozbur about the patterns used in the illustrations and in different variations of the story.
“When all the animals were going into it,” Metzger said. “Some of the books had really cool illustrations of what the inside of the mitten looked like, some even had chimneys.”
By showing her second graders the different ways various illustrators choose to portray the folktale, Kozbur opened a door to allow students to make their own mitten projects in various ways, each special and unique to themselves.
Emery O’Dell, 8, said her favorite part of working on her mitten project was coloring the drawing of her mitten all different colors.
The story has also given Kozbur a chance to connect with students on a personal level, as she is able to represent her roots and share a tale that was read to her when she was a child growing up in the Ukrainian Village of Chicago, and one she passed on to her own now grown children.
“It is a nice memory for me because my grandmother, she was a great storyteller, and in the winter that was one of her favorite stories,” Kozbur said, adding that her passion for the story comes through when she is reading it to students.
“I get very emotional with all these things because it reminds me of my wonderful childhood and I think I can better convey the story to them because I think I have more feeling in the story than someone who would just pick up the book,” she said.
Kozbur said she feels as passionate about ensuring her students are exposed to various cultures.
“We have a lot of kids who speak a lot of different languages,” Kozbur said. “I always try to bring that into the fold as well. It is good to know another language.”
By teaching other cultures through art, Kozbur said it exposes students to other perspectives and takes them outside the bubble they sometimes can live in.
“It gets them talking about this at home and getting answers and being inquisitive about their own heritage,” Kozbur said. “When you start talking about these things, it piques their curiosity.”
Holding back tears, Kozbur said speaking about world events through art can help drive those types of conversations forward and bring events into terms and ideas that are age appropriate.
“When the war broke out [in Ukraine], this building was covered in sunflowers because I asked our principal, Mr. Godfrey, I said ‘Sunflowers are the flower of Ukraine. Can we do a project for sunflowers?’ He said ‘Marta, go for it,’” Kozbur said. “We probably had a couple thousand sunflowers all over the building.”
Kozbur rearranged her plans when the tsunami and earthquake hit Japan in 2011, creating new lesson plans for every grade level. When the Haitian earthquake hit, she did the same thing.
“It’s so the kids can see, in a kid way, and so they can stay current with some of the major current events that are happening,” Kozbur said.
Seeing her students’ creativity and imagination shine through their work, which are all different, is part of the beauty of her job, said Kozbur.
“It comes front of their heart and the stuff I get back brings smiles to my face because it is all different, it’s all beautiful, and it is all representative of their little personalities,” she said