Welcome Oak Grove Bellemeade Elementary students and families!

We have created this website just for you! Here you will find lessons divided by grades, K-1st, 2nd-3rd, and 4th -5th. All projects may be adjusted for any grade level and we encourage parents to participate in the art-making process. New lessons will be added every week! Each lesson will adhere to the Virginia Department of Education standards.

There are also additional online resources as well as a place to submit artwork! We are excited to see what you create!

With Love,

Ms. Meehan and Mrs. Cooper


Dear Families,

During this time of civil unrest, we want to create space for you and your child to have a discussion regarding the events that are taking place in our country. We want to encourage children to process emotions and learn about the heroes and activists that shaped American history. We urge you to use these discussion questions (taken from Teaching Tolerance) to start a dialogue on how social injustices in American society may impact the experiences of many people of color. This is an educational opportunity to understand current events and the history leading up to them. We seek to foster an environment that allows students to not only understand the events occurring around them, but also inspire them to become the change they want to see in the world.

"We are called to be architects of the future, not its victims."

R. Buckminster Fuller


General Self Reflection Questions

  • What are my identities?

  • How do I see myself? Is it the same way others see me?

  • Does my identity mean I get to do things other kids can’t, or keep me from doing something?

  • How am I the same as other people? How am I different from other people?

  • What are the differences between how I live and how others live?

Questions Relating to Current Events

  • What do you know about what's going on in the news? What have you heard? What do you see?

  • How you do you feel?

  • Are there any questions that you feel need to be answered?


Please see the our Book Page and resources below for more information for you and your students.

Civil Rights Movement

The main aim of the Civil Rights Movement was to give everybody equal rights regardless of skin color, gender, nationality, religion, disability or age. The aim of the movement which peaked in the 1960's was to ensure that the rights of all people are equal and are protected by the law.

Black Panther Party

Black Panther Party, original name Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, African American revolutionary party, founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The party's original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality.

Million Man March

The Million Man March was a large gathering of African American men in Washington, D.C., on October 16, 1995. Called by Louis Farrakhan, it was held on and around the National Mall.

The committee invited many prominent speakers to address the audience, and African American men from across the United States converged in Washington to "convey to the world a vastly different picture of the Black male" and to unite in self-help and self-defense against economic and social ills plaguing the African American community.


Black Lives Matter Movement

Black Lives Matter is a US-based international movement co-founded by three black women: Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi. The #BlackLivesMatter movement began as a hashtag for Twitter, after George Zimmerman's acquittal for the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2013. It gained momentum after the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown, the death of Eric Garner, and subsequent events that continue to this day.