Playground meets classroom

Published 5:00 am Saturday, June 5, 2004

Second-grader Aniya Auskaps called out, ”A big, fat dot!” during a Friday morning game using the stylized Oregon map painted on the courtyard behind High Lakes Elementary School.

”That’s Salem!” Walker Sorlie and Jane Lyons protested in unison as they raced each other, Tristan Simoneau on their heels, to the large white dot signifying Oregon’s capital.

The Oregon map, complete with major rivers, mountains, dots marking cities and five other colorful designs is a recent addition to the courtyard. It’s designed to blur the line between playground and classroom, second-grade teacher Lindsley Gehrig said. Gehrig orchestrated the painting of the designs. It was funded by the parent-teachers’ association (PTA) and completed by staff and parent volunteers.

According to Danielle Purdy, a parent who lent her artistic talents to the effort, the project boiled down to ”a lot of (parents) working together to make something happen.”

”As everyone knows, schools don’t have the money to promote these things on their own,” Gehrig said. ”Not only can kids create games and play on them during recess, but teachers can also use them to teach.”

Gehrig said she saw the idea for the designs in a teaching magazine. The magazine showed a large clock face without hands, where students could lie down and create the time with their arms and legs.

A yellow clock face sans hands now graces the back courtyard.

But Gehrig said she was able to take the idea much further with the help of other staff, parents and the support of the PTA.

The designs also include a Venn diagram, overlapping circles that visually demonstrate similarities and differences; a checkerboard with squares numbered from one to 100; a rectangle listing place values and a color wheel.

”It’s a great benefit for the kids who are visual learners.” PTA president Lynn Hobson said. ”They don’t even know they’re learning.”

The clock is designed so that it can double as a sundial and all six designs are being reproduced in the front courtyard.

”It’s taken on a life of its own,” Gehrig said. ”People have been very generous with their time and resources.”

Purdy was helped by Elisa Davis, a parent with a background in graphic design. Davis mapped out the space in both courtyards and determined sizes for each painting.

Denfeld Paints donated some paint and materials to the project, and Norman Building and Design lent the school a power washer, Gehrig said.

Parents and teachers supplied the labor.

”(It was) grunt work, really. Getting out there in the morning and putting the hours in,” Purdy said. ”It was sometimes uncomfortable and hot, (but) it was social. It felt like a real community project.”

Purdy said some parents even recruited teenage sons and daughters to help.

”We’re kind of surprised how fast the process went,” Hobson said. ”Fortunately, Lindsley and Danielle Purdy had it really well organized.”

Both courtyards should be done by the end of the school year, she said.

Hobson, Gehrig and Purdy said students have embraced the additions.

Second-grader Ally Engel, who was playing on the clock face, said she was excited the painting in the front courtyard was nearing completion.

”I think we’re going to ask some of our friends how to play different games and see which ones we like,” Engel said.

Lyons agreed.

”We’re going to try a lot of other stuff because you can play thousands of games,” she said. ”I’m excited.”

Tired of identifying Oregon landmarks, Lyons and her classmates started a game of ”line tag.”

The rules? Stay on the blue lines on the map.

Yoko Minoura can be reached at 541-383-0387 or at yminoura@bendbulletin.com.