By Tim Leeds
Fourth-grade students at Sunnyside Elementary School have been painting the walls. And they're learning a lot doing it.
Fourth-grade teacher Sandra Staudinger said she asked local artist Linda Warneke to come in and teach her students about painting.
Staudinger said Warneke came in and drew sketches on the walls of the halls by Staudinger's classroom. The sketches included a picket fence and flowering vines. Then Warneke instructed the students how to paint the drawings, Staudinger said.
Staudinger said Warneke had been in since last Monday, spending about an hour to an hour-and-a-half each day. The students were rotated through in small groups, allowing every student to participate, she said. She said Warneke has been teaching her students elements of painting, including perspective; large techniques, such as for large leaves; and small techniques, such as the the edges on the fence; detailing; and sponge techniques.
The students, some dressed in locally donated pharmacist's coats as smocks, listened attentively and worked studiously on the painting.
Staudinger, who has been teaching her students about Monet, Rembrandt and Grandma Moses, said she has had Warneke do this before. She said Warneke came in to do the same activity in Devlin school when Staudinger taught there.
Warneke said she has been painting professionally for 30 years. She said she works for the school food services at the high school and at Devlin School as well.
She has never done demonstrations as a class before, Warneke said. However, she has another wall project later this spring in addition to the current walls in Sunnyside and Devlin, she said. She said she will be working with Betty Callies' third- and fourth-grade class at Devlin. She said they plan to do a space theme, with astronomical backgrounds and spaceships.
