Art In The Garden. . .Kid Style

Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden never ceases to amaze me.  I tell visitors on my tram guides that we entertain over 150,000 school children every year, but in truth, I rarely have anything to do with them.  Today was quite different.

My friend Sheila and I spent the morning at the Garden, volunteering as art mentors for school kids participating in this year's renowned Fairchild Challenge. This morning's session was the start of the Annual Art Workshop for Elementary Schools, kindergarten through 6th grade, with approximately 180 kids, from many different schools, gathered under the Garden's Gala Tent on a rainy Wednesday morning to learn about, and then draw, indigenous plants from the Florida Everglades.

Our group of youngsters were students from "The Growing Place",  a  unique kindergarten school run by First United Methodist Church of Coral Gables. They were led by Mari and Gaby, two remarkably kind and patient teachers, who introduced us to all the kids and helped us get them seated out in the Garden with their sketch books and colored pencils.  Because it was drizzling intermittently, we chose to seat the kids by a nearby lake, close to a stand of Florida mangroves.  My job was to explain about mangroves to the kids and suggest they draw the tangle of roots emerging from the water. Enough said!  They immediately went to work.

Big excitement!  A snapping turtle suddenly appeared in the lake, creating a momentary stopping of work.  An anhinga bird, drying his wings on a branch across the lake, was another nature moment for the kids.  Sheila and I had our work cut out for us, commenting on each kids drawing, suggesting, encouraging and applauding.  Amazingly, for 5 and 6 year olds, some were definitely budding artists.  Others did a lot of scribbling, but everyone did their best.

It was a wonderful morning.  Exhausting, but inspiring. After two hours, we said goodbye to our group as they headed off to the Butterfly Garden before returning to school. Below are some of the photos I took of our group.
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Our budding artists! That's Sheila and me in the back.





Sheila working with the youngsters



Explaining about mangroves to the kids and teacher Mary