Kindergarten Students Create Replica Vintage Cars as a Gift to Retirement Community Residents

Kindergarten students put their skills to work in a community outreach project that featured communication skill-building, a little history lesson, a lot of art and a chance to give to others with a personal touch.  

The classes, taught by Anne Kemp, Colleen Beshk and Jessica Banks, visited Villas by the Sea retirement community in San Clemente to interview residents. They specifically sought details on their new friend’s first car, such as color and number of seats, and took notes on features of the vintage cars such as rumble seats and continental tires.

After listening to a presentation from a car designer, the students went back to class and drew pictures of the car described to them. Those pictures were referenced as the students worked in pairs to design replicas of the described car out of clay, molding them into the shape described and later painting them to match the color the resident recalled. The cars were then affixed with 3D-printed wheels made in the ICE Lab with help from grade 3 students.

The cars will be given to their interview subjects in a return visit to Villas by the Sea, as a gift to the residents who took time to talk to the students.

In all, the unit stretched over three weeks and coincided with the May theme of “transportation” in kindergarten classrooms.