Students create far-from-ugly sweaters after reading biographies

Students in Leilah Austin-Draitser’s fifth-grade class at PBE delved into biographies of many historical and popular figures recently.

They learned of the discipline and nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi, the trailblazing of Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks and Amelia Earhart, the bravery of Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Malala Yousafzai, the brilliance of Albert Einstein, and the power and courage of Simone Biles, to name just a few.

A group of four fifth-grade students each hold up a book they read and a page they colored, creating an "ugly" sweater based on the accomplishments of the person they read about. There are two girls on the left, then a boy and another girl. All are smiling.

Each student selected a biography, read it and then had some fun! They colored “ugly” sweaters based on their knowledge of the person about whom they had just read. The sweater drawings were colorful and informative, and very far from ugly!

An elementary age girl with longer dark hair smiles as she holds up a book about Simone Biles and a page she colored. An elementary-age boy holds up a book about Martin Luther King Jr and a page he colored abouthim.