Gill St. Bernard’s students, grades pre-k through three, returned to the Lower School early one morning to discover that an overnight invasion had taken place throughout the hallways and in their classrooms. Little did they know that the alien invaders they encountered had been brought down to Earth by fourth grade students at GSB.

In February, Lower School art teacher Jaime Diken asked the members of the Class of 2023 to create their very own “space invaders” similar to the popular 1978 arcade game of the same name. The students drew inspiration for their projects from a contemporary street artist known as “Invader,” who places mosaic pieces around the world for people to see and publishes the locations of these invasions online.

“After viewing and discussing ‘Invader’s’ style and approach, students began creating the base for their very own invaders,” said Diken. “Using a 1”-by-1” grid to create the illusion of pixels, students filled in the squares with paper tiles and chose their own color schemes to really make each invader stand out. The reactions we received from other students were truly amazing.”