Ever Green
By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Noelani School second graders Mitsuka Mitsugera and
Jonathan Park hold up paintings they did from
photographs they had taken at the Lyon Arboretum.
What's a good idea worth? In the case of the good idea of Janice Nishiki and Lori Chun, it was worth enough to fund an innovative pilot program of art and nature for second graders. Nishiki, a second grade teacher at Noelani Elementary and Chun, a second grade teacher at Manoa Elementary, developed the program and applied for a Public Schools of Hawaii Foundation "Good Ideas" grant. Cultivating
student interest"The foundation asks public school teachers, 'Do you have an idea you'd like to try in your classroom?' and if they find it worthwhile, they issue grants up to $1,500 for the good idea. We were thrilled when we were awarded a grant last August," Nishiki said.
What they did with their somewhat smaller grant was to work with Lyon Arboretum and its education coordinator Jill Laughlin on a project that would combine concepts of science and art on a level for 8-year-olds. They call it "Art in Nature's Garden." It involves trips to the arboretum where the children study about plants and then photograph either a whole plant or portions of it. The grant paid for the digital and conventional cameras used by the children and for buying and processing the film.
They weren't simply turned loose, though, Nishiki said. "Before we made our first trip to the arboretum, Jill arranged for Greg Clark, a professional artist and photographer, to present a slide show on the wonders of the garden. He talked about looking for lines, shapes, patterns and colors in the plants. 'Don't just look straight ahead,' he told them. 'Look up and down and look closer.'
"They learned to use the Mavica digital camera, which involved some math, and they practiced with the Sure Shot that some of them were more familiar with. In January, the students from the two second grades began e-mail correspondence with each other about what they were doing for the project. In February, the two classes finally met face to face when they went on their first field trip together to the arboretum."
Chun invented a game involving color swatches of the variations of the blue, green, yellow and red shades frequently found in flowering plants -- and the students looked for matching colors in the garden. As Clark had taught them, they had to look closely because sometimes the color would be merely a part of the stamen or under a leaf. Then the children each took two or three photos of something that particularly interested them. It wasn't always an entire flower or plant. Sometimes it was the pattern of the bark or the shape of a leaf.
Then the many rolls of film were developed and the photographs returned to the students. "It was a task trying to log the correct shot with the child who took the picture," Nishiki said, "but we did it."
They each studied the photos they had taken and created large watercolor paintings from them. The results are remarkable.
The students returned to the garden in late February for a very special session. A former teacher at Noelani School and the grandmother of one of the Manoa students, Michi Takemoto, taught the children how to write haiku.
In an open gazebo in the garden, Takemoto read some of her own work and explained the Japanese verse form of three unrhymed lines of five, seven and five syllables respectively. These are traditionally written about nature. "It was an inspirational activity, to see how sensitive and observant the students had become about their outdoor classroom," Nishiki said.
On this trip, more photographs were taken and Nishiki taught the students how to make collages from leaves. Laughlin showed them how to classify the individual leaves using a catalog and how to dry the leaves before arranging them in the collage.
The results, an amazing collection of photographs, paintings, collages and poetry, will be on display at Lyon Arboretum a week from tomorrow. "The quality of the children's work is outstanding," said Charles Lamoureux, executive director of the arboretum. "The joy and vitality incorporated into their artwork gives us hope that this generation will not let Hawaii's endangered rain forest vanish."
That may be a far ranging goal of the program, but Nishiki and Chun feel the more immediate aims of learning about art and the environment have been successfully accomplished through "Art in Nature's Garden."
And what did the kids say?
"Hey, it was neat," said Sean Wooden.
"I learned that until you looked at a plant really close up, you never knew what was there," said Priya Singh.
And Brett Tominaga said, "I learned that if some of us looked at the same plant, we saw different things."
Laughlin and Lyon Arboretum intend to expand the program designed by the two teachers to involve other schools. Elementary school teachers wanting more information should call Laughlin at 988-0461.
Work by Noelani and Manoa elementary schools second graders. Beautiful harvest
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. May 15.
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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