Benjamin Logan Elementary School fourth-grade student William Carpenter pulls on a pinback button-making machine with the help of BLES Art Teacher Darrin Reese. For the school-wide project, Reese shared with his students the history of pin-back buttons dating from 1787 to the 1940s. His behind-the-scenes research also led him back to a piece of his own childhood, as he remembered the days of pinback buttons being traded and collected for a brief period of time when he was in elementary school. Reese said the beginning of the school year is a great time to conduct a school-wide art project. “From temporary murals to outdoor pinwheels, it’s nice to share a ‘short and sweet’ art-making unit with first- through fourth-grade students as a sort of ‘ice breaker’ project to get our creativity started,” he said. The pinback button lessons are focusing more on the creative design aspect of buttons and making a “quarter-sized” piece of art that each student artists can proudly wear. Once students complete their designs, they will cut out their paper button template to be hung as a colorful, collaborative mural in the commons area of the elementary building. (BENJAMIN LOGAN SCHOOLS PHOTO)