eveline_pierre_web.jpgNORTH MIAMI — First-grade students in the Museum Magnet program at William Jennings Bryan Elementary School have produced a book about Haitian culture in collaboration with the Haitian Heritage Museum and book making consultant Lea Nickless.

The book, “Through the Eyes of My Haitian Friend: What Pictures Can Tell Us About Culture,” comprises hand-painted drawings that tell the story of a Haitian-American child who takes a non-Haitian friend on a tour of the various rooms of the child’s home.

The book was put on display during the recent Winter Showcase at the school, 1201 N.E. 125th St., North Miami.

A grant from the Institution of Museum and Libraries Services, Adopt a Classroom, Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs and Target paid for supplies to produce the book.

The school’s Museum Magnet program has established links with museums and cultural institutions in Miami-Dade County.

Museum educators work side by side with classroom teachers, connecting the curriculum with the objects and artifacts from their respective museums and facilitating field trips to their institutions.

This integrated curriculum focuses primarily on object- and project-based learning, emphasizes problem solving, communication, exploration, invention and inquiry through ongoing visits to the Haitian Heritage Museum, 4141 N.E. Second Ave. in Miami’s Little Haiti community, and other cultural partners of the school.

The museum was co-founded by Eveline Pierre, a political science and history graduate of Howard University, and Serge Rodrigue, an architecture graduate of Florida A&M University.

For more information, call the Haitian Heritage Museum at 305-371-5988 or Raquel Alexander at 305-995-1334.

Photo: Eveline Pierre