From February to May of 2022, our beloved Imagine Studio Afterschool Arts program teamed up with DrawTogether Classrooms by illustrator Wendy Mac to push Social Emotional Learning (SEL) to the forefront of education, using art as a language for engaging and communicating our emotions.

Our CFAER Teaching Artists, Jolene Fernandez and Miquela Davis, led San Pascual Elementary STEAM Magnet students through 12 Thursdays of drawing, singing, dancing, and giggling together, all the while growing hearts with the pure magic that is art.

Our students learned that we can say how we feel by relating our emotions to different weather patterns; that it's absolutely okay to make mistakes; that you can mix a color of your very own creation; and that everything is truly better when we carve out the time and space to draw together.

Students begin class with Wendy Mac’s famous Pencil Mustache: “Pencils up!”

“Everyone draws differently, and that is ok.”

— Audrey, 1st Grader

Suso the Dog, by Leyla

“I enjoyed the art class with friends and especially the different ways to use colors. Teachers were nice :)”

— Leyla, 1st Grader