Students looking at the solar eclipse with glasses on

Along with hundreds of thousands of people across North America, K-8 students & staff at Two-Way Language Immersion at Barbour took a deeper look into & experienced the historical total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.

Students engaged in learning about solar eclipses through play, inquiry, arts integration, webquests, games, and more. Discussions, using academic vocabulary such as the path of totality and the sun’s corona, buzzed through the hallways about this historic event. Models were created of the Earth, moon & sun. Students used tasty treats to create the solar eclipse before gobbling them up. 

They watched live feeds of the eclipse, in Spanish, as it traveled the path of totality across Mexico & the United States & considered how their friends & family would experience the same event around the world. Students studied historical images of artist’s renditions of solar eclipses across time & created their own inspired total solar eclipse using chalk pastel & metallic colored pencil. Students who had the opportunity to view the eclipse outside with protective glasses, tracked and drew the stages of the eclipse; they experienced the sky darkening & the temperature dropping. Pausing from our “regularly scheduled program”, allowed students a chance to learn alongside history & science in real time. The pure joy & excitement of our world in motion will stick with our students through their life-long journey of learning. “I can’t wait to tell my grandkids about today when I’m older.” - 5th grade Barbour student 

Bio: Heather Schlueter is a K-8 Art Teacher - EL ART CLT - New Teacher Mentor at Barbour