St. Louise School art teacher Amy Friedman has taken know your neighbors to heart.

Friedman’s own second grader is enrolled at the Jewish Day School, which is located a few blocks northeast of St. Louise School in Bellevue’s Crossroads area. Feeling affinity with both schools, Friedman came up with an idea of a “trading card” assignment between the two schools’ second grade classes. Working with the art teacher at the Jewish Day School, the theme decided upon for the trading cars was “buildings” for both schools.

St. Louise second graders created designs of buildings on 2½” x 3½” size tag-board. Each student created two cards, one to trade, and one to keep. Students used pencil as the first medium, outlined the designs in black, and finished with colored pencils. On the flip-side of the trading card, students created even more patterns using the same design technique.

Each card was then laminated to preserve the memento as a meaningful connection with neighbors and friends.