- Category: District
Willow Brook Elementary students and staff recently completed a unique outdoor art installation. Inspired by street artist Kelsey Montague and funding provided by a grant from the Maritz Arts and Education Fund for Teachers, art teacher Dawn Lynn created a permanent butterfly wings mural consisting of ceramic tiles in the school’s garden.
“Here in our corner at Willow Brook, we want to invite the school community to enjoy our school garden year-round and interact with our school-wide collaborative art project,” Lynn wrote. “Where will our wings take you?”
Students and staff created radial patterned flowers at school and Villemade learners were able to pick up the supplies to complete the project at home.
This is the first art installation at the school that is part of the exterior of the building.
Today is Read Across America Day and every student in Ms. Mary Florence Goding’s first grade class spent 20 minutes reading a book. That time could be worth a lot of money. 
Jenny Reid, a fifth grade teacher at Willow Brook Elementary, received the 2021 Thesis Award of Excellence in the College of Education at Eastern Illinois University. Reid graduated from the Curriculum and Instruction graduate program in the summer of 2020 and this award is a recognition of the highest achievement in graduate research from each of the four academic colleges at EIU based on a master’s thesis project between July 1, 2018, and June 30, 2020. She will be honored at the Distinguished Graduate Awards Ceremony in April and featured in the "Graduate Journal of Scholarship." Reid’s thesis was titled "Growth Mindset: A Key to Motivating Students in Reading" and