Monroe School
Monroe, NH
The second school to participate in The Ground Beneath Our Feet, Monroe Consolidated School is small and rural. I worked with the entire 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade classes – which added up to 18 total kids! After a residency at the much larger, more urban Ledge Street School in Nashua, I enjoyed the opportunity to adjust my presentation of this project in response to a new community of teachers and students.
In many ways, the situation at Monroe was ideal: three great teachers as collaborators, including Sarah Gaudette (3rd and 4th grade), Laura Tobin (2nd grade), and Jen Corkins (Art); a team of para-educators to support student learning; dedicated use of the school’s spacious gym; a whole morning for the soil digs and related exploration, plus time to meet with teachers and work out logistics; and two full days of uninterrupted time to create the murals.
Day One (1/2 Day): Soil Digs, Collaborative Drawing, and Logistics
On a foggy Fall morning, students, teachers, soil scientist, and artist met for the first time and promptly headed outdoors. Andy Colter, of the National Forest Service, dug a pit in a meadow, aka cow-pasture, across the street from the school, and then in a woods very nearby. The kids were very involved in investigating their environment, and we had great support from the three teachers, as well as the student parent whose family land we were on. Kids took notes of what they saw, and where. The students were super-interested by Andy's uniform and career, and it seemed that roughly 1/4 of the class had decided they wanted to be soil scientists by the time he left (!)
After coming back indoors, I talked about how both scientists and artists work hard together to be as specific as possible about their observations, and invited the kids to do a remembering and drawing exercise on the whiteboard at the front of the room. What does a grasshopper look like? One kid would come to the board, and start the drawing. How could we be more specific? Kids would volunteer that the back legs were different than the others, etc. I encouraged kids to be drawing their own version of whatever we were tackling, while the group activity was taking place. Many of them did. We did this for about an hour, with the whole 2nd/3rd/4th group together, and the kids’ level of attention and engagement were impressive to me.
Then, the kids went to recess/lunch at 11:30, and I met with Sarah Gaudette. We went to look at the gym, which is only used on Mondays, and decided it will be a wonderful space for the mural work. We decided the teachers would divide the kids into 4 groups, using their knowledge of the kids to engineer good combinations of personalities and ages. (Sarah and Laura decided to keep the grade levels as they are in the classroom – so, Group One was all the 3rd and 4th graders together, and Group Two was all the 2nd graders. This worked well.) Two groups will work with me at one time: one forest group and one meadow group. At 11:50, Jen and Laura came to join us. We looked at various possibilities for where the murals will be installed, and settled on either side of a doorway off the main school atrium. Then we met with Dale, the school custodian, who agreed to drill holes and install screws for us. I left the school about 12:30.
Physically, I determined that the Monroe school murals will be one 3'x7' forest mural and one 3'x7' meadow mural. Working smaller than Nashua will allow the kids to really saturate the surfaces, while working closely with another, and will fit the site we have chosen for display within the school.
In many ways, the situation at Monroe was ideal: three great teachers as collaborators, including Sarah Gaudette (3rd and 4th grade), Laura Tobin (2nd grade), and Jen Corkins (Art); a team of para-educators to support student learning; dedicated use of the school’s spacious gym; a whole morning for the soil digs and related exploration, plus time to meet with teachers and work out logistics; and two full days of uninterrupted time to create the murals.
Day One (1/2 Day): Soil Digs, Collaborative Drawing, and Logistics
On a foggy Fall morning, students, teachers, soil scientist, and artist met for the first time and promptly headed outdoors. Andy Colter, of the National Forest Service, dug a pit in a meadow, aka cow-pasture, across the street from the school, and then in a woods very nearby. The kids were very involved in investigating their environment, and we had great support from the three teachers, as well as the student parent whose family land we were on. Kids took notes of what they saw, and where. The students were super-interested by Andy's uniform and career, and it seemed that roughly 1/4 of the class had decided they wanted to be soil scientists by the time he left (!)
After coming back indoors, I talked about how both scientists and artists work hard together to be as specific as possible about their observations, and invited the kids to do a remembering and drawing exercise on the whiteboard at the front of the room. What does a grasshopper look like? One kid would come to the board, and start the drawing. How could we be more specific? Kids would volunteer that the back legs were different than the others, etc. I encouraged kids to be drawing their own version of whatever we were tackling, while the group activity was taking place. Many of them did. We did this for about an hour, with the whole 2nd/3rd/4th group together, and the kids’ level of attention and engagement were impressive to me.
Then, the kids went to recess/lunch at 11:30, and I met with Sarah Gaudette. We went to look at the gym, which is only used on Mondays, and decided it will be a wonderful space for the mural work. We decided the teachers would divide the kids into 4 groups, using their knowledge of the kids to engineer good combinations of personalities and ages. (Sarah and Laura decided to keep the grade levels as they are in the classroom – so, Group One was all the 3rd and 4th graders together, and Group Two was all the 2nd graders. This worked well.) Two groups will work with me at one time: one forest group and one meadow group. At 11:50, Jen and Laura came to join us. We looked at various possibilities for where the murals will be installed, and settled on either side of a doorway off the main school atrium. Then we met with Dale, the school custodian, who agreed to drill holes and install screws for us. I left the school about 12:30.
Physically, I determined that the Monroe school murals will be one 3'x7' forest mural and one 3'x7' meadow mural. Working smaller than Nashua will allow the kids to really saturate the surfaces, while working closely with another, and will fit the site we have chosen for display within the school.
Day Two: Getting Started
I wasn’t sure about the pacing and organization that would unfold with these new students. Yes, the collaborative drawing we had done together was really encouraging, but I entered into the first day of actual mural-making with curiosity. What is going to happen? How quickly? What will these murals – done with the same subject matter and materials as the Nashua ones, but by different artists – look like?
I noticed very quickly that the Monroe students’ rural experience translated into direct and particular engagement with the murals’ iconography. In the meadow mural, multiple tractors, cows, salt licks, wild turkeys, and even and elegantly rendered cow poop revealed the children’s familiarity with farm life, animals, and hunting. In the forest mural, the many creatures that we had actually encountered on our soil dig field trip now returned as inspiration for drawn and painted salamanders, hornets, chipmunks, deer, centipedes, and mushrooms.
Even though a relatively small number of students were working together on the murals, long, uninterrupted periods of creative work lent themselves to quick progress. We had decided to divide the day into two 1 ½ hour blocks in the morning, and two 45 minute blocks in the afternoon. I started each session with some kind of embodied, contemplative check-in: a laying down on the ground and listening deeply with the imagination exercise, a standing and stretching roots down into the ground and branches high into the sky exercise. I think these initial moments together helped to ground me, the teachers, and the students. Followed these initial moments with a short period of instructions, and then we all entered into the creative work itself.
At the end of the second day, I offered a short demonstration of drawing and cutting stencils from the plastic sheet material we were using. The students that had a period of independent work on their drafting, drawing, and cutting out. I left the completion of the stencils as a task for the students and teachers to complete before the final day’s mural work. (We had built in a one-day gap in the mural schedule.)
I wasn’t sure about the pacing and organization that would unfold with these new students. Yes, the collaborative drawing we had done together was really encouraging, but I entered into the first day of actual mural-making with curiosity. What is going to happen? How quickly? What will these murals – done with the same subject matter and materials as the Nashua ones, but by different artists – look like?
I noticed very quickly that the Monroe students’ rural experience translated into direct and particular engagement with the murals’ iconography. In the meadow mural, multiple tractors, cows, salt licks, wild turkeys, and even and elegantly rendered cow poop revealed the children’s familiarity with farm life, animals, and hunting. In the forest mural, the many creatures that we had actually encountered on our soil dig field trip now returned as inspiration for drawn and painted salamanders, hornets, chipmunks, deer, centipedes, and mushrooms.
Even though a relatively small number of students were working together on the murals, long, uninterrupted periods of creative work lent themselves to quick progress. We had decided to divide the day into two 1 ½ hour blocks in the morning, and two 45 minute blocks in the afternoon. I started each session with some kind of embodied, contemplative check-in: a laying down on the ground and listening deeply with the imagination exercise, a standing and stretching roots down into the ground and branches high into the sky exercise. I think these initial moments together helped to ground me, the teachers, and the students. Followed these initial moments with a short period of instructions, and then we all entered into the creative work itself.
At the end of the second day, I offered a short demonstration of drawing and cutting stencils from the plastic sheet material we were using. The students that had a period of independent work on their drafting, drawing, and cutting out. I left the completion of the stencils as a task for the students and teachers to complete before the final day’s mural work. (We had built in a one-day gap in the mural schedule.)
Day Three: Finishing Touches and Installation
On the final day of mural work, I feel confident that we would be able to complete the murals, and so I began to include more integrated arts components in the sessions I shared with the students.
For the third and fourth grade morning session, we repeated the contemplative exercise of roots in the ground, crown to the sky. Then, each student had the chance to apply his or her stencil to the mural surface. As students completed this, I encourage them to apply stencils to their individual 12 x 12” paintings. And once they completed that task, on their own time, I suggested that students write haikus about any part of the mural that they were interested in. I followed a similar path when meeting with the second graders that morning. Haiku writing for the third and fourth grade was fine for their age, and the structure of the container of five-seven-five syllables worked for them. Here are a few of my favorites:
Ants I love you ants
You shine bright like a hot star
You start your day great.
The dirt is so deep
The dirt helps bugs and ants
It goes to bedrock.
Wasps sting you when mad
yellow and striped polka dotted
wasps have big black wings
The mushrooms are great.
They’re the best ones in the state.
Mushrooms can’t relate.
Ants are black and red.
They live in antholes ants are
because they are ants.
For the younger kids, haiku was harder. What’s a syllable? Where am I? Still, most were able to enjoy it, with adult helpers. Here’s one I composed with a little guy, looking at a mysterious drawing somewhere deep underground in the forest mural:
Critter, who are you?
Tiny spiky dinosaur
or tarantula.
Both age groups presented their haikus and finished 12 x 12” paintings in a kind of celebratory circle at the end of the morning session. Each person had a turn to read their poem and/or show their painting, and to receive applause afterwards. This felt like a sweet way of acknowledging each person’s creativity in its particular expressions.
In the afternoon sessions, I invited students to use oil pastels to add detail and color to their stenciled paintings from that morning. By the end of their session, the third and fourth graders seemed a bit antsy – perhaps with the excitement of completing the project, or just as a function of their age and vitality. I requested help from six of them (who felt done with drawing), to wash paintbrushes, which they did with great gusto. We put away all the oil pastels. Then, I suggested that we all go outside, and move like any creature from the murals. One person led, and all followed, until everyone had had a turn to lead, including me, the teachers, and the para-educators. A joyous celebration of all that we had done together, and a valuable opportunity to practice intense silliness, paired with careful listening to one another.
When the second grade came in for their afternoon session, I began with a toning exercise. We formed a circle. I held a note, and asked the students to meet me there. The kids added a rule – whoever’s turn it is to be the sound-leader gets to stand in the center of the circle. One kid who had displayed some explosive behavior – and also fine drawing skills – loved this activity, and loved succeeding in it. I modeled any sound is OK. One little girl “couldn’t think of a sound” so I said “boop!” to her playfully, and she repeated it back to me. The group picked that up. She liked that she had a sound, and it was the first one that was a syllable rather than an undistinguished note.
A similar thing happened with the older kids’ earlier movement play – one girl was stuck for inspiration, and pulling on her sweater, so I said, Look – you’re already doing the I don’t know dance. We did that together with the kind sense that I don’t know is in itself a valid, workable, and also fun possibility. The kids later came back to the idea of the I don’t know dance with a kind of delight.
After the second graders' final session, Jen Corkins and I quickly sprayed a thin coat of UV gloss spray over the surface of both murals, to protect the soft oil pastel surface, and to preserve the colors from degradation by sunlight. Dale, the custodian, left a step ladder for us to use, and so we easily hung both murals on the screws Dale had drilled into the walls for us. They went up just in time for the students to see their finished work, as class let out for the day. Leah, the school principal, came to celebrate with us, and we took photographs of the students in their teams & all together, in front of the completed murals.
The Monroe school teachers and staff later held a larger celebration of the murals, at a school assembly, with all grade levels of students, teachers, and staff present.
On the final day of mural work, I feel confident that we would be able to complete the murals, and so I began to include more integrated arts components in the sessions I shared with the students.
For the third and fourth grade morning session, we repeated the contemplative exercise of roots in the ground, crown to the sky. Then, each student had the chance to apply his or her stencil to the mural surface. As students completed this, I encourage them to apply stencils to their individual 12 x 12” paintings. And once they completed that task, on their own time, I suggested that students write haikus about any part of the mural that they were interested in. I followed a similar path when meeting with the second graders that morning. Haiku writing for the third and fourth grade was fine for their age, and the structure of the container of five-seven-five syllables worked for them. Here are a few of my favorites:
Ants I love you ants
You shine bright like a hot star
You start your day great.
The dirt is so deep
The dirt helps bugs and ants
It goes to bedrock.
Wasps sting you when mad
yellow and striped polka dotted
wasps have big black wings
The mushrooms are great.
They’re the best ones in the state.
Mushrooms can’t relate.
Ants are black and red.
They live in antholes ants are
because they are ants.
For the younger kids, haiku was harder. What’s a syllable? Where am I? Still, most were able to enjoy it, with adult helpers. Here’s one I composed with a little guy, looking at a mysterious drawing somewhere deep underground in the forest mural:
Critter, who are you?
Tiny spiky dinosaur
or tarantula.
Both age groups presented their haikus and finished 12 x 12” paintings in a kind of celebratory circle at the end of the morning session. Each person had a turn to read their poem and/or show their painting, and to receive applause afterwards. This felt like a sweet way of acknowledging each person’s creativity in its particular expressions.
In the afternoon sessions, I invited students to use oil pastels to add detail and color to their stenciled paintings from that morning. By the end of their session, the third and fourth graders seemed a bit antsy – perhaps with the excitement of completing the project, or just as a function of their age and vitality. I requested help from six of them (who felt done with drawing), to wash paintbrushes, which they did with great gusto. We put away all the oil pastels. Then, I suggested that we all go outside, and move like any creature from the murals. One person led, and all followed, until everyone had had a turn to lead, including me, the teachers, and the para-educators. A joyous celebration of all that we had done together, and a valuable opportunity to practice intense silliness, paired with careful listening to one another.
When the second grade came in for their afternoon session, I began with a toning exercise. We formed a circle. I held a note, and asked the students to meet me there. The kids added a rule – whoever’s turn it is to be the sound-leader gets to stand in the center of the circle. One kid who had displayed some explosive behavior – and also fine drawing skills – loved this activity, and loved succeeding in it. I modeled any sound is OK. One little girl “couldn’t think of a sound” so I said “boop!” to her playfully, and she repeated it back to me. The group picked that up. She liked that she had a sound, and it was the first one that was a syllable rather than an undistinguished note.
A similar thing happened with the older kids’ earlier movement play – one girl was stuck for inspiration, and pulling on her sweater, so I said, Look – you’re already doing the I don’t know dance. We did that together with the kind sense that I don’t know is in itself a valid, workable, and also fun possibility. The kids later came back to the idea of the I don’t know dance with a kind of delight.
After the second graders' final session, Jen Corkins and I quickly sprayed a thin coat of UV gloss spray over the surface of both murals, to protect the soft oil pastel surface, and to preserve the colors from degradation by sunlight. Dale, the custodian, left a step ladder for us to use, and so we easily hung both murals on the screws Dale had drilled into the walls for us. They went up just in time for the students to see their finished work, as class let out for the day. Leah, the school principal, came to celebrate with us, and we took photographs of the students in their teams & all together, in front of the completed murals.
The Monroe school teachers and staff later held a larger celebration of the murals, at a school assembly, with all grade levels of students, teachers, and staff present.
- Narrative and Photos by 2016 Ground Beneath Our Feet Artist in Residence Julie Püttgen