Not many students get so excited about history that they climb down in a dumpster to put hands on it. But fifth- and sixth-grade students at Pike Liberal Arts School are just that excited.

Not all of them went dumpster diving to put their hands on history but they all scrapped and scraped to bring bygone days to life.

Forty-one fifth-graders and 27 sixth-graders at PLAS benefited from an Arts and Cultural Facilities grant awarded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts and facilitated by the Johnson Center for the Arts.

The grant funds were used to bring an art teacher to PLAS four days a week for a month for the purpose of integrating art into the classroom.

Ashley Powell, who teachers fifth- and sixth-grade math at PLAS, has attended the Johnson Center for the Arts’ ArtBridges Teachers Summer Workshop.

Because Powell has a love and appreciation for history and art, she was given the opportunity to participate in the implementation of the grant.

 

“I was already integrating art into my classroom so I was excited to have this opportunity for my students,” Powell said.

Vicki Pritchett, Johnson Center executive director, said Troy artist Kristy Drinkwater was the teacher of choice for the grant-awarded class.

“Kristy is an outstanding artist and a creative and innovative teacher,” Pritchett said. “She loves history; she loves art and she loves kids. She was the ideal choice.”

Drinkwater said the fifth-grade class course of study for the month was the Westward Expansion, while the sixth graders were studying the period of history from the jazz years to World War II.

“The art/history project for the fifth graders was to create an art piece that would highlight the major events of the Westward Expansion,” Drinkwater said. “As they learned about the westward movement and all of the events that occurred, the students brought pictures and items that would illustrate the expansion – the Louisiana Purchase, the building of the Erie Canal — all of the events that were a part of the Westward Expansion.”

The sixth-grade students were challenged to create a timeline that would illustrate the period of American history for the rip-roaring jazz age through World War II.

“The students used materials and colors to show the changing mood of the country,” Drinkwater said. The glitz and glitter of the jazz age gave way to the gloom of Shantytown to the guts and glory days of World War II.

“The students contributed to both the Westward Expansion map and the time line,” Drinkwater said. “Fifth-graders brought in cotton to illustrate the agriculture of the South and nuts and bolts to illustrate the industrial growth. The sixth graders brought a string of pearls to designate Pearl Harbor and pillow stuffing for the exploding atomic bomb. All of the students participated. Together, they created these pieces of art.”

Powell said it was interesting to see students who thought they couldn’t do art, realize they could do art.

“These students will forget many things about fifth and sixth grade but they will not forget these experiences,” Powell said. “They have learned about history in a different way. It’s been exciting and it’s been fun. I appreciate this opportunity for them.”

Powell’s fifth- and sixth-grade history classes will participate in an ArtTalk at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 25 at the Johnson Center for the Arts in Troy. Everyone is invited to come, see the students’ art projects and hear how they have put their hands on history.