If You Go Down to the (Preschool) Woods . . .
Over the years, Principia students and teachers have made extensive use of our campus woods—for active learning as well as quiet contemplation. Occasionally, the kindergarteners even hike among the trees, although it’s a long trip when you have little legs.
Now, all our Preschool students will enjoy walking through their very own woods every day of school! But wait . . . these aren’t just any old woods. These stay bright and colorful all year round; they don’t lose their leaves; and they’re home to all sorts of creatures, great and small, as well as a host of larger-than-life flowers and mushrooms.
In fact, you could say they’re the ideal “storybook woods”—as their creator, artist and author Angela Sage Larsen (C’92), calls them. Depicted in a set of five outsize murals, these woods convey the joy, enthusiasm, and freshness that characterize the activities in the Early Childhood Program, including interacting with the outdoors. These murals, Larsen says, “kick it up a notch, placing the children in a kind of wonderland, a creative, imaginary world.” (As author and illustrator of the well-loved fairytale series Petalwink, Larsen is well known to young readers around the country.)
Two of the murals were installed in time for the first day of school. And just yesterday, after more than a few late-night painting sessions in her living room and a lot of help from Larsen’s husband, Whit (US’87, C’91), the remaining three went up.
Earlier today, the students got to explore these whimsical woods and the creative thinking and artistic techniques that went into their creation. First, Larsen shared a slideshow depicting various phases of the work—initial sketches, the sawing and cutting of the plywood forms, the images taking shape, even the “mistakes” she made and how she corrected them.
Then, the students went outside for a “scavenger hunt” among the murals—How many hummingbirds are there? How many bugs? How many buttercups and pinecones? What colors are on the striped poles? They also shared which mural was their favorite and offered up several suggestions for naming the squirrel. Later, the two younger classes (pre- and junior kindergarten) enjoyed working with their new coloring books of the mural images that Larsen had made especially for them. They could replicate the colors in the murals or go “out of the box” and make their own creations.
Activities such as these go well beyond art, however. They develop lifelong learning skills and help strengthen character, as young children learn to “listen, think, and do”—which is what a Principia education is all about. In fact, earlier in the morning, an exchange between the children and Larsen illustrated another key aspect of the Principia difference. Katy McKinney (US’92, C’96), Early Childhood supervisor, recounts the story this way: “Larsen asked the children, ‘Where do ideas come from?’ Instinctively, they responded, ‘God!’”
After that, McKinney continues, “Larsen asked, ‘And where is God?’—to which the children enthusiastically replied, ‘Everywhere!’ Larsen then helped them connect the dots: ‘So if God is everywhere and ideas come from God, then ideas are everywhere too!’"