Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280342
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ESSICA MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
OAK GROVE PUPILS PULL OFF A FEAT OF CLAY THE SCHOOL WILL REMEMBER
Lara Landgraf, the smallest of four fifth-graders headed to the school's office, told the others that they weren't in trouble.They were going to be interviewed about their class' recent gift to the school, she said.
Billy Richardson said no one had told him, while Jenny Bongiovanni and Amanda Prettyman smiled shyly.
The four Oak Grove Student Cooperation Association officers, moved to the lobby and sat down on a couch, feet dangling. Soon, they all began to talk at the same time, with excitement in their eyes and their voices.
Their gift, a 5-foot clay mosaic of wildflowers, was made by fifth-graders who stayed after school one afternoon.
Parents and teachers arranged the activity. Hidden Valley Junior High School teacher Debbie Harris came to help the fifth-graders cut out hundreds of pieces of clay for the mosaic.
The cafeteria tables were covered with newspaper as Harris demonstrated how to cut the clay, SCA officers said.
"Mrs. Harris showed us how to cut out the pieces, and there were posters around showing us how, in case we needed them," said Landgraf.
"The cafeteria was such a mess I wondered if they knew what they were doing," said Oak Grove secretary Beverly Stroud.
But the kids knew, and they were having fun cutting shapes out of wet clay. They used sticks that they had collected from outside to use as rolling pins. The fifth-graders used toothpicks to carve their initials and designs into rectangular pieces of red clay used as the border.
"We each made two pieces of red clay with our initials on them, and one was in the final [piece]," said Prettyman. The students kept the second piece as a souvenir.
The students also cut white clay into designs of flowers, vines, leaves and circles. "There were six different designs for the white clay," Bongiovanni said.
Volunteers took the pieces to be fired in a kiln and then moved them to the Landgraf's basement where Harris spent several days glueing the pieces together and filling in the extra space with grout.
Some parents donated a frame.
Because the students had not seen the finished work, they were pleasantly surprised during the presentation of the mosaic to the school on Dec. 8. The SCA officers gave speeches that, when combined, told about what the fifth-grade class had done and thanked Harris, Principal, Margaret Moles and others who helped.
All but Richardson, that is. "My speech wasn't about that," said Richardson, "it was about the other things happening at school."
He talked about upcoming SCA events including their plans for each classroom to adopt a child to receive Christmas presents.
The SCA officers also promised that another gift would soon be given to their school of 535 students. When asked what it would be, they said "It's a surprise."