The Altamont Enterprise — Thursday, June 10,1999
20
Sculptures at Pine Bush Elementary: Art for content's sake...
(Continued from Page 1)
have enough clay to make a butterfly. I shifted gears, and made
a turtle."
"I was going to make an eagle," said Danielle Tetreault, also
a second-grader, "but the legs —
I couldn't get them right, so I
changed, and made a rabbit."
Not to worry; a fourth-grade
project on Native Americans
strewed eagles through the exhibit's skies.
T h e s e f o u r t h - g r a d e eagles
showed the project doing what
the school had wanted, according to L a u r a Hamor, the freelance artist who designed it. Pine
Bush officials had asked h e r to
create a schoolwide arts project
that would a teach a variety of
subjects.
"They said they were looking
for a n art-in-the-classroom project," Hamor said. "In the classroom, they use a r t to teach a
subject. They wanted to involve
as many subjects as possible —
math, reading....I thought about
it, that they could make an animal. The fourth grade was doing Native Americans. The fifth
grade was doing t h e Voyage of
theMimi."
This i s multi-media science
lesson, introducing life in ' t h e
oceans through a book and video
tapes. The seas were h a n d e d
over to the fifth-graders.
But adults propose, students
dispose, as H a m o r admitted.
"When I present [something] to
the students, they alter it almost
instantly," she said. Not all the
fifth-graders happened to be interested in sea creatures:
"I m a d e a pig and a bird,"
Caitlin Walsh said, "and my pig
was supposed to b e something
else, but it turned out to be a pig.
I think i t connects to our school
theme, which is responsibility,
because we have to be responsible for all the animals in our environment."
Score another for the exhibit's
purpose: "The project w a s a
spin-off of the theme of responsibility, and how one species
might depend on another, like
t h e food chain," said Noreen
Santa-Maria, enrichment coordinator for the school. "In the
classroom, t h e teachers were
supposed to work this theme out.
It extended from special education through fifth grade."
P i c t u r e s o n a wall
The lessons learned naturally
reflected the grade levels. So dia
the inspiration of the sculptures.
Seven kindergartners took animals from a n illustrated alphabet strip over t h e black-board.
Taylor Evanchick made an octopus. "I put it in the water," h e
said.
Alex Lindenman made a gorilla. "They hoot and holler — I
found t h a t out in a movie," he
said. "They eat bananas, too."
"Monkeys also eat bananas,"
Kaitlin O'Reily put in.
But some of Joy D a l a b a ' s
kindergartners found their models beyond the wall.
"I have seen snails in my back
yard," said Emily Nagle, who
made one.
"I made a dog," Jasmine Day
said. "I looked at dogs in my
neighborhood, and when I came
back to school, I made one and
that is all. It is a yellow dog."
"I have a pet lizard, and that is
the animal I made," said Michael
DeNisio. "It has spots on it. It is
orange and black and brown
mixed together."
Colin Clarke's iguana — another wall creature — is properly
green.
"I m a d e a rainbow rabbit,"
said OTttley, "all different colors.
I j u s t like rainbows, so I colored
it rainbow."
"I made a seal," said Kristin
Scally. "I m a d e it pink and purple."
it
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rf«Ws&1rt£]-4'.
Brianna Askew's bear ("I j u s t
thought it would be a good idea,"
she said), led to a discussion of
wild a n i m a l s i g h t i n g s . "My
grandmother has wild animals,"
Scally said. "One day, they went
all the way up the driveway —
the foxes. I think she saw a real,
real, small baby fox." Bears also
come to this favored home, and
something, r e a r s its ugly head
within the next three years; half
a dozen fifth-graders said they
hadn't thought it would be easy.
More commented on the degree
of difficulty of their projects.
"I made a rattlesnake, because
I knew it was a n easy t h i n g to
make," said Furdowse Nazir. "I
made t h e tail, and really goofed
it up. First I twisted the tail like
this (he demonstrated rolling the
clay between his hands), then I
twisted it u p . " He colored it
"Army g r e e n " w i t h a m a g i c
marker.
"I also thought it wasn't going
to be fun," said Anthony Cinque.
"I thought it would be h a r d . I
made a jellyfish and a monkey
out of clay; they t u r n e d out
pretty good. I chose t h e monkey
because I really like monkeys,
project t h a t is h a r d e r for fifthgraders.
"In defense of fourth- and
fifth-graders, they have a lot less
picture books," she continued.
"The younger grades have picture books.
"As an adult, you are less observant, and there is less to observe. I could go a whole day
without seeing a picture of a bird
or a butterfly, and as a kindergartner, t h a t j u s t doesn't happen."
Certainly this is true in the colorful classrooms a t Pine Bush,
where lively images strike the
eye everywhere. T h e secondgraders had a poster of butterflies on the wall. They knew,
from the garden at their school,
that the large and beautiful tiger
swallowtail at the top of the
'I made a rainbow rabbit, all different colors.
I just like rainbows, so I colored it rainbow.'
and I had chosen the jellyfish because I had seen a red one floating in the water, and I decided to
make one."
Nick Quagliari made a
"garden" s n a k e "because I was
thinking of making a cobra, [but
decided to do] a different one,
because it was easier."
He had a memory of a garden
s n a k e . "My m o t h e r saw one
when she was near the pool, and
she was screaming." When the
" g a r d e n " w a s c o r r e c t e d to
"garter," and the garter was explained as a band women used
to use to hold up a stocking, seve r a l of t h e s t u d e n t s recalled
g a r t e r s being tossed a t weddings.
"I made a butterfly," Katie
The Enterprise — Bryce Butler
Rossettini said, "and I thought it
Earth, air and sea: The boxes that held animal sculptures by the
would be kind of hard; I didn't
students at the Pine Bush Elementary School represented the three
know w h a t kind to make, belocations for life on earth. The display returned to the school this
cause they come in all kinds of
week from the Schenectady
Museum.
fancy designs. I made my own
butterfly."
the other kindergartners seemed
eral of the s t u d e n t s knew it is
"I made a butterfly," said Erica
proud to know someone whose important to avoid touching bats Furr. "I think it is the opposite of
life was filled with such wonder- because of disease, a n d a t least what Katie said. You roll for the
ful things.
body, but it kind of t u r n e d out
one student knew t h e disease is
hard, shaping it and m a k i n g it
Fastest bird
rabies.
Over a month after the project
"I saw a real bat before, a wild smooth. I thought t h e coloring
was completed, every student
one," s a i d C h r i s McDermott. would be easy; the same pattern
could describe w h a t he or she
"There are a lot of t h e m a t my on both sides, but it was bumpy
had made.
camp. They fly around i n the air. on the wings, so it was h a r d to
P a t r i c i a Del Negro's fifthThere was one close to the fire. It color it. I j u s t drew a whole
graders were seated in t h e i r
was chasing the moths t h a t were bunch of colors on it."
chairs the day a visitor came to
"I saw a turtle in a pond once,"
flying around the fire."
talk to them about their sculp"I did a tarantula," said Steven said S a r a h Jurczynski, "and I
tures. Both Dalaba's kindergartFrey. For the legs, h e took a little saw a frog there. So I started to
ners and Joan Williams's second
graders were gathered on mats.
Williams's second graders de scribed their creatures shortly
after 8:30 a.m., after their opening ceremony of a patriotic song,
Pledge of Allegiance, and a lesson on dates and money.
Kevin Ghizzoni said he had
made a peregrine falcon. "I
learned about it at home, he said.
"They are the fastest sky animal,
because they go 100 miles an
hour.
Leigh Ward made a turtle. "I
just put my mind to it, and made
make a frog, but then it started to
it," she said. "I started making
piece of clay, and rolled it, curled
look like a turtle I saw there, so I
the body, and I took little pieces
it up, and put it on the body.
just put a back on it."
of clay, and I put them together
"I made a blue heron," said
under the body for the feet, and I
"I made two snails," said Kyle
Shawn Moore. "I know what he
started molding the head and the
Warren. "They were supposed
looks like. He was really, really
neck, and after a couple of days, easy to make." Before the project
to be snakes when I rolled them
I had the color.
up, but they looked like snails."
began, he said, "I never, even
"I saw a lot of turtles when we
heard of a blue heron. I looked in
The self-criticism that crept in
went to the aquarium," she said.
a bunch of books t h a t had picbetween second and fifth grades
Alexis Santiago made a dol- tures in them, like a picture dicdidn't surprise Hamor. "When I
phin. "I learned t h a t they have tionary, and I opened to a page."
have done projects before, k i n all different kinds of heads, with
Fifth g r a d e
dergartners are very open, not
long noses and short noses. I
comparing themselves with othThe visitor mentioned t h a t he
made one with a short nose."
ers," she said.
would have hated the assign"I made a beaver," said Mor- m e n t — hand crafts simply
"I said to the older kids t h a t it
gan Ryan, "and I learned t h a t
would be harder for them. They
weren't his style, he said. Had
they can make dams, and they
looked at me — it would be
any of the children felt that way?
use dirt and sticks. If there is a
harder for fifth-graders? I said
In the kindergarten and secbig flow of water, they make a
the same thing to the kinderond grade, no one said it had
dam to stop it."
gartners, and they were thrilled,
been a problem. But self-conPaul Jones got a lot out of his
when I said we are going to do a
sciousness, or quality control, or
'I could go a whole day without seeing a
picture of a bird or a butterfly, and as a
kindergartner, that just doesn't happen.'
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. .i' •• f s^.*>^jp^S|?f^:*;»,
brown b a t project. He didn't
make j u s t any fcrown bat, but a
baby brown bat. "I learned t h a t a
baby b r o w n . b a t ' s m o t h e r can
find a baby out of all the babies
in the cave," he said. "I did a science fair before; I did a fair on
bats."
Jones had seen the animals on
a bat hike with his family. Sev-
M3^-p>j5j^^^^ja^4^^if^^i?*JS!fS'f";
c h a r t has been very c o m m o n
this spring.
Of course some s t u d e n t s got
along without picture books.
Brent Heesemann said he had
seen the horse he m a d e as a
m a s c o t a t D e n v e r Broncos
games.
Dakota Kohlker-Lander made
a rat. "I've seen rats in my house
and in sewers," h e said. Asked
when on e a r t h he had been in a
sewer, he insisted t h a t h e had,
but was vague about j u s t where.
"I made a wolf and a b a s s e t
hound," said Kristen Bradley. "I
like basset hounds."
"I made a mouse and a snail,"
said Melissa Fuller. "I m a d e t h e
snail because it was easy, and
t h e mouse because I couldn't
think of anything else to make,
and I had read a book about a
mouse. It is called, Mrs. Frisbee
and the Rats ofNihm." She said
t h a t indeed it was a science fiction book.
Tiffany Davis contributed a
whole menagerie, mostly from
her class's sea theme. "I m a d e a
butterfly, a sea horse, a snail, and
a barnacle. I picked that, because
we were doing The Voyage of
theMimi."
She also made a cat, "and I
made it look like one of the pets I
have. It is gray."
Purpose
Asked if she had received any
feedback about t h e educational
purpose of t h e project, H a m o r
said she had heard from some of
the teachers.
The sculpture was displayed
a t the Schenectady M u s e u m ,
and was returned to Pine Bush
this week.
"While the sculpture w a s being readied, they had a museum
group of four- a n d five-yearolds, and they did a whole project based on w h a t h a d been
done at Pine Bush," Hamor said.
"There is an elephant there,
and a dog next to it, and t h e dog
is bigger than the elephant. One
child said, 'How did the elephant
get to be smaller t h a n the dog?'
The other kid said, 'Maybe t h e
dog is bigger than the elephant."
Either version could start a great
story, she said.
"I think this is the first time everyone has been involved in a
hands-on project t h a t has been
visible," S a n t a - M a r i a said.
"Their friends can say, 'That is
my part,' and another can say,
'That is mine,' and they see it all
together, maybe seeing the entire environment in a way they
haven't before."
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