Support the Wondrous Things Art and Literacy Project

The College of Education is partnering with Fayette County Public Schools for a R.E.A.L. Read Partnership with Harrison Elementary and William Wells Brown Elementary. As part of the arts-integration component at both of these elementary schools, the College of Education will recruit and coordinate volunteers to do paired and class readings of Wondrous Things.

Wondrous Things is a children's picture book and interactive coloring book in one, authored by University of Kentucky Associate Professor of Architecture, Liz Swanson. The text prompts children and guides reading mentors to engage in conversation regarding the values of creativity, tolerance and the appreciation of differences. Set in one continuous landscape printed on accordion-style pages, the message of the book is simple: we all have gifts and talents to share with the world. By flipping the book over, readers discover the same landscape with space to draw and express their own ideas and vision of how a new story might unfold.

Support of this project allows us to purchase copies of this text to bring into K-1 classrooms. Our goal is $3,000. At a cost of $15 each, we hope to bring at least 200 new copies of Wondrous Things into our partner classrooms. Then, in the classrooms, UK volunteers will engage students in the authorship of their own texts under the leadership of Professor Swanson's art instruction. Students will bring the texts home with bilingual reading guides to engage in further reading and conversation at home.

Please show your support for the Wondrous Things Art and Literacy Project by making a gift today!

*All of your gifts will be deposited into the College of Education Excellence Fund and earmarked for the Wondrous Things Art and Literacy Project. Every dollar raised will be used for the Wondrous Things Project. If we do not meet our fundraising goal, your gift will still be used to purchase books for students, but fewer classrooms will participate. If we exceed our goal, the additional funds will be used to reach even more students.