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Colorful
New Lower School Tile Mural Installed Additional
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Primers learning fundamentals of design painted crosses. First-graders contributed butterflies, dragonflies, and other insects they had studied in their classrooms. Second-grade students painted puffins, monkeys, tree frogs and other amusing animals. Third-graders depicted ecosystems, combining animals and their environment as well as science and art in their tiles. Fourth-graders added smiling self-portraits, many with the surprise of glazes that, once fired, turned their faces blue and purple. Coordinating the huge project, a colorful vision of learning and art in the Lower School, was Art teacher Marilyn Wood. "Every student in the Lower School created a tile," said Ms. Wood, "although not every tile was installed." Students used underglazes to paint their designs on the bisque tiles. But that was only the beginning of the project that would eventually take shape in a recessed wall space in the commons. Next, Ms. Wood personally overglazed each and every tile. Then began the three-day firing process--a day to fire the tiles, a day to cool the kiln, and another day to unload and reload the next batch, all accomplished on her "own time." When problems surfaced with the Lower School kiln, Ms. Wood turned to her colleagues in the Middle School for assistance, art teachers Alice Munn and Debbie Tallarico, who gave of their time to help her fire five separate batches of tiles in the Middle School kiln.
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