Kids are learning local history through art, as they visit and illustrate local cemeteries, churches and schoolhouses.
Students at Windham Elementary School visited historic sites in Windham and Stratton, as part of a week long artist residency. They made drawings, and are writing poems and stories to go with the drawings. They are also building a timeline of events.
The illustrations are part of a book that will be sold at the West Townshend Store.
Students are illustrating local cemeteries, churches and schoolhouses for a book that will be published and sold at the West Townshend Store. An associated contra dance and potluck dinner will be scheduled.
“I think everyone has a lot of art so it could be a big book,” said arts educator Christine Mix. She estimates that the book will be about 40 or 50 pages. She said that students brought sketchbooks on their field trips, and met with a group of residents who attended the school in the 1940s and 1950s.
Once the town of Windham hosted eight schools. It officially became a town in 1795.
“I think it’s been great because the kids are learning about where they live. They can relate to the places,” Newton said. “They’ve been interested in looking at all the old pictures and hearing the stories about what it was like to live here.”
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