Aztec Ruins
National Monument

CHILDREN'S ART AND WRITING AT AZTEC RUINS

Writing Trails


Since 1997 we have run writing programs at Aztec Ruins for area third through fifth graders. Students spend a day exploring the Monument, and taking field notes on their observations. They then work with an artist in residence to render their vision of the place in art and/or in writing. Art and writing from this project has been displayed for public viewing at the Farmington Civic Center and the New Mexico State Fair. School groups from Farmington, Bloomfield, Kirtland, Aztec, and Zuni have taken part in this exciting place-based education program.  Read a sample story  and view artwork by past participants. Review program activities.

Our program objectives relate to these New Mexico State Language Arts Content Standards &  Benchmarks:

At this time we offer the program each year to four groups of 3rd through5th grade students from area elementary schools.  In the writing workshop, students work with writer in residence Uma Krishnaswami offers a brief orientation to fiction writing, and on using the senses to construct setting in stories.  They also tour the site with a traditional presenter who shares a personal perspective on the meaning of the place to present-day Pueblo peoples of the Southwest.



Katie Simplicio reads her poem at A:Shiwi Elementary, Zuni

Stories are completed, edited and polished back in school over the following week, in a collaborative mentoring process in which teacher and writer work together.  In the art workshop, students work with artist and mentor Sonja Horoshko in creating large works of arts representing their experience of the site.  All those participating in the workshops(students, teachers, parents, even bus drivers if they come walk the trail with us!) are invited to create a piece of writing and/or art.  We draw, and write, together.

The culminating event in the program is the Young Authors’ Reading held at the visitor center at Aztec Ruins, at which young writers read their work to peers, family and friends, and the public.

The Aztec Ruins Writing Trails Project is funded by the National Park Foundation.  Local support comes from the Northwest New Mexico Arts Council and Hard Backs Books & Art.  If you are a teacher of a3rd through 5th grade class in San Juan County, New Mexico, and you want your class to participate in the program, fill out an application form.

Updated: August 2001