Theiss Elementary School students demonstrated their gratitude towards health care providers and those working on the front lines of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic by participating in a three-week art project directed by the school’s art teacher, Connie Shin.

“I wanted to include my students to teach them to express their gratitude toward all those health care workers and first responders and front-line workers who are risking their lives to help out,” Shin said.

According to Shin, around 60 students in grades K-5 participated in the project, which originated as an art assignment for students to submit digitally. Shin said she later had the idea to compile the submissions into a video to be shared via her YouTube channel, which she created as a teaching aid for her students following district-wide closures, which have been in place since mid-March.

“I thought it [would be] a good way to share on YouTube so anybody can go look at it and know that people are thinking of them and ... [are] actually really appreciating what they're doing,” Shin said.

Shin said the art project carried a personal significance for some students who have loved ones working on the front lines. Parent Meredith Graeber said her daughter Rebecca, a Theiss Elementary School fourth grader and project participant, wrote her thank you message in honor of a family member who is currently working as a nurse at Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital.

“We haven't been able to ... see [our loved one] for almost three months now and so the project really struck Rebecca, because she's missing someone who she knows [and] is like our own personal hero ... and so she really enjoyed making it,” Graeber said.