8th graders are both excited to move on to high school and a bit sad to leave middle school, but before they graduate, they’ll have to complete the 8th grade mural! This is exactly what it sounds like – all the 8th graders contribute a piece of artwork to add to a mural, which is meant to commemorate their time in Pelham Middle School. Previous murals can be seen throughout the school. Many are in the lobby/main hallway area, a few are in the middle school gym, and one is in the eighth grade hallway.

As for this year, the mural theme is “Find Your Happy Place”. Each member of the eighth grade will paint his or her happy place, and all the paintings will then be pieced together to create a collage of happy places.

Putting together the final piece is the job of the Mural Committee. Eighth graders choosing to join this committee have been going to the art room during lunch to prepare the mural. The final product will be on a large slab of wood that the Mural Committee has been busy painting. The mural will be on display in the main hallway, near the gym.

In the meantime, students have been busy painting their happy places. Each student has received a small piece of thick art paper which will become an image of that person’s happy place. Students were able to cut the paper into any shape, then paint it. Happy places have ranged from sunsets to beaches to waterfalls to video games. Many of these happy places are on temporary display in the art rooms.

Mrs. Schwarz, one of the art teachers at Pelham Middle School, is running the mural committee.

“The mural committee is a dedicated group of students taking a leadership role in the mural process. Students are giving up lunch to do this, which really says something,” she says, adding, “mural committee is fun, too!”

She admits that a challenge in creating the mural was a limited time frame. Students are busy, and can only spend a little time each day working on the mural.

Mrs. Schwarz finished, “The mural is important because it is a monument every class leaves behind for future people going through the school. It’s like a time capsule; it shows what was going on every year.”

I’m sure many people will be curious to see how it turns out!