St. Luke’s Episcopal School Students win First Place in the Texas Art and Literacy Summer Contest
17 SECOND AND THIRD GRADERS ANNOUNCED AS FINALISTS IN STATE ART AND WRITING CONTEST
This fall, two St. Luke’s Episcopal School students won first place in their grade level in the Texas Art and Literacy Summer Contest. Additionally, 15 of their second and third grade classmates were named state finalists in the contest, which is sponsored annually by the educational resource and learning publishing company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Each September, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt receives hundreds of creative entries from all across the state for its Texas Literary and Art Summer Contest. Contest entrants are tasked with describing their favorite literary hero or villain through two means, writing and art. Under the guidance of
(left to right) Isabella Washington – 2nd grade and Lainey Jackson – 3rd Grade won first place.
their language arts teacher Cindy Zaldivar, SLES students composed letters, poems, short stories, and essays about their chosen character. In art class, each student then depicted their character through a black and white piece of art using one additional color to highlight a noteworthy feature of that character. Out of 43 K-5 finalists statewide, St. Luke’s second and third graders claimed 17 spots, including Isabella Washington and Lainey Jackson, who won first place in the second and third grade divisions, respectfully.
“We are grateful for the opportunity to have participated in a contest that allowed our students to utilize cross-curricular skills in exploring a topic that connected with them on a personal level,” says St. Luke’s art teacher Amanda Bennett. “Linking art and literature in this project made the students look at the conceptual part of the art process from an early stage. We are incredibly proud of all our students for their dedication to their art and writing.” Each first place winner was awarded a $100 Visa gift card along with 100 trade books for SLES.
