“A Call for Student Artists!”
THEME: Using Art and Haiku to celebrate “Migration and the Changing Seasons”
Students come with us!
Together we can all fly
Thank you for this time
Art and Haiku= “Haiga” Student Art Exhibition
Dear Teachers – The 2025 Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival is taking place at Lodi’s Hutchins Street Square, 125 S. Hutchins St., Lodi, November 7-9, 2025. We invite your students to come “fly with us!” This year’s Student Art Exhibition is a little bit different.
We would like the students to use the Japanese art form that combines a short poem, traditionally a 5-7-5 syllable haiku, with a visual image, meant to complement each other, capturing a moment from nature in their everyday world, reflecting migration and the change of seasons. We would like to use this year’s festival artist, Jennifer Anderson’s beautiful block print style above, as an inspiration for the students’ art.
Teachers who wish to learn more about a simple styrofoam block printing method, should visit: Two color styrofoam block printing
Teachers who wish to learn more about Haiku or Haiga, should attend the free virtual September 18,2025 workshop being offered by Jerry Bolick. LUSD teachers should contact bfox@lodiusd.net, to register.
Non-LUSD should contact kgrant@lodi.gov for more info, or to register.
We hope that you will attend this year’s 27th festival, and also encourage your students and their families to attend. The festival is a great place for visitors to visit and learn more about the Sandhill Crane migration which happens every year in nearby delta wetlands, September through late February. November’s festival tour registration opened in early September. Learn more about the festival and the Sandhill cranes:
https://lodisandhillcrane.org/about-the-festival/
1 | P a g e – L S C A 2 0 2 5 A r t E x h i b i t i o n G u i d e l i n e s LET’S GET GOING! 😊
The WHY: Teaching California Environmental Principles through watershed education, in our own backyard.
Teaching from a watershed perspective is a great way to frame the concepts called out in the California Environmental Principles. Connections and integration between science, language arts, and art can be easily made and are a great way to teach, beginning with the Migration and Changing Seasons phenomena happening in our own backyards- the California Delta- Pacific Flyway.
The WHERE and WHEN: The Sandhill Cranes are returning any day now!
The greater and lesser Sandhill cranes are an ancient migrating bird who use the Pacific Flyway to travel annually between their breeding grounds up north, to their overwintering grounds in CA Delta lands, just a few miles from most local campuses. Arriving in mid-September and staying through early March, these wetland birds prefer freshwater ecosystems, especially in the lower reaches of the Mokelumne River, just off Woodbridge Road, near Lodi, and Staten Island, as well in the lower Consumes River watershed, near Galt. Lodi’s November Sandhill Crane Festival celebrates the cranes’ fall arrival from their northern breeding grounds each year, while the Galt Bird Festival celebrates the cranes return to their breeding grounds in early spring.
More of the WHY: Teaching from a watershed perspective: Just west of Lodi, the Mokelumne River watershed drains to a wetland area, providing freshwater habitat for thousands of water birds, specifically the cranes who have overwintered in this area for ages. These birds’ mate for life, following the learned behavior of their parents, arriving in the delta as paired birds, often with their young, who are learning the travel routes of their parents. The importance of stewardship and conservation of the Mokelumne River watershed, and other watersheds, by providing a clean, healthy waterway is what we can impress upon our students, which is vital for the bird’s survival, as well as our own, since the Mokelumne River provides Lodi with almost 50% of its drinking water. Most delta communities, including Lodi and Stockton, drain their street’s rain and other stormwater, from streets to local waterways as a means of flood control, but this water is untreated, and potentially polluted.
2 | P a g e – L S C A 2 0 2 5 A r t E x h i b i t i o n G u i d e l i n e s
Students can become the next generation of “craniacs”, and environmental stewards, by helping improve the runoff from their school campus, beginning with the elimination of trash on the ground.
The WHO and HOW: The City of Lodi and the Lodi Sandhill Crane Association have worked hard to create resources for you to use in class, that we hope your students will enjoy. To kickstart your studies, see: Teaching the Season of the Sandhill Cranes: Teacher lesson plans, or Meet Your Mokelumne River Watershed short videos.
“Meet the Mokelumne River Watershed” complete library Watershed Education Programs & Videos | Lodi, CA
1. The prize- A free Study Trip! Go see the birds with a docent! A Lottery will be drawn with all Art Exhibition Participating Classes! Several study trips to the Isenberg Sandhill Crane Reserve will be provided for classes randomly chosen, who have contributed their student’s art to the art exhibition. https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regions/3/Crane Tour
Exhibition at a glance
Please review the guidelines below to ensure a smooth art submission and art return process.
1. Special Festival Paper Classroom Sets!! Before September 26, 2025- Request a classroom set of Festival 11”x17” “One-Pager” Sandhill Crane Festival Art Sheets- Email kgrant@lodi.gov .
2. Choose five completed student works, submitted to LUSD mailroom week of Oct 20- 24, 2025. LUSD Mail Center; Attn. Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival/Shannon.
3. Art Displayed- Lodi Sandhill Crane Festival, November 7-9, 2025, Hutchins Street Square, Lodi. 125 S. Hutchins St. Lodi Library– November 11-24, 2025. 4. 5. Art will be returned to your site via LUSD Mail Center by early December.
Information included in this packet – 2025 Guidelines; Checklist; and Inventory Sheet.
*** For more information, see https://lodisandhillcrane.org/, or call/text Kathy Grant- 209-327- 2063, or email kgrant@lodi.gov.
3 | P a g e – L S C A 2 0 2 5 A r t E x h i b i t i o n G u i d e l i n e s2025 Guidelines
7th Annual Sandhill Crane Festival Student Art Exhibition
ELIGIBILITY
• Students ages 5-18 and grades K-12.
• Students currently enrolled in a public, private, charter, homeschool, or parochial multi-subject academic school in San Joaquin County.
• Student work must reflect a Japanese style “Haiga”, or block print alongside a Haiku, with nature related, “Migrations and the Changing Seasons” theme, on 11×17 Festival provided paper.
• Limit of five students’ work per class created on Festival provided 11×17 paper.
• Chosen submitted work will be displayed on 4’x8’ corrugated cardboard at the Festival. All artwork must be submitted by the student’s academic classroom teacher or with the written authorization from the student’s academic classroom teacher.
• Artwork must have been completed during the current school year.
INVENTORY SHEETS
• Completed inventory sheets must accompany artwork. List each student’s name and grade.
• If the class includes more than one grade, separate them by grade level on the same sheet.
• Multi-period class teachers must submit a separate inventory list for each class period.
AWARDS
• A certificate of appreciation for each participant will accompany returned artwork.
ENTRIES
• Each student artwork must include student name, grade and school on each special “One-Pager” sheet.
LIABILITY
• While the Lodi Sandhill Crane Association (LSCA) takes reasonable care and precaution in handling the entries, it is unable and will not assume responsibility for any loss, including but not limited to theft, damage, or vandalism, etc. Further, in the event of an overwhelming number of entries, the LSCA reserves the right to reduce the number of works hung due to limited space. Every effort will be made, however, to hang all the eligible entries received. Any entry that does not comply with the above rules will not be included in the exhibition, even if delivered with other eligible entries.
4 | P a g e – L S C A 2 0 2 5 A r t E x h i b i t i o n G u i d e l i n e s
2025 Checklist – 7th Lodi Sandhill Crane Association Student Art Exhibition
Follow this checklist before delivering student art work; keep it for your records.
Review the attached guidelines.
- Note that only 1 (one) work per student allowed, on official SCF Nature Journal paper.
- Five students per class will be chosen by teacher with Haiga- Haiku and Art created on correct 11×17 “One-pager” Festival paper for display at festival.
- Legibly complete the attached inventory sheet for each class. Please do this before you send student work to the LUSD Mail Center.
- Art must be on special “One-Pager” paper from Festival. Contact kgrant@lodi.gov by September 19, 2025 to request paper.
- Check to be sure the name of the student is clearly written on their official SCF Nature Journal entry paper.
- Student art will be returned via the LUSD Mail Center, ATTN. Shannon/Sandhill Crane Festival-KGrant.
- Contact Kathy Grant, Lodi Sandhill Crane Association Student Art Exhibition Committee, with any questions. kgrant@lodi.gov or call/text 209-327-2063.
5 | P a g e – L S C A 2 0 2 5 A r t E x h i b i t i o n G u i d e l i n e s
