THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505190231
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY FRANK ROBERTS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
Tchaikovsky and trachodon, Beethoven and brontosaurus share space, and student interest, in Janette Snyder's Booker T. Washington Elementary School classroom.
That is where children and teacher divide their time between painting authentic looking prehistoric animals, and literally mixing music and art by painting musical notes using dots and dashes.
``It's a wedding of music and art,'' said Snyder, a 37-year-old Front Royal native. The best man at the wedding is Samuel F.B. Morse, originator of the dot-dash code bearing his name.
``The dot is painted or drawn to illustrate a quick beat,'' she said, ``the line is a held sound.''
They are drawn and painted on a large sheet of paper, the students having an imaginative time adding figurines, objects, lines, curves and shapes, all of which help tell the story of each song.
``Before the art comes the music,'' said Snyder, who has a B.A. in art education from Virginia Wesleyan College. ``The children listen over and over. Then, we don't worry about exact interpretation. We create the feeling for the music.''
When the painting or drawing is finished, the children, using a taped background, sing the song by following the dots and dashes and checking their story-telling illustrations.
Every now and then Snyder will give a concert in a school or nursing home illustrating the method which, she says, ``was inspired by the old bouncing ball.''
The over-50 folks will remember movie shorts showing the words of a song, a ball bouncing over each word to let you know which words to sing and how long to stay on those words.
``What the children are doing in the classroom is a perfect lesson. It combines music and art - it paints music,'' Snyder said.
``It comes up off the paper and goes into your head,'' said Jonathan Bulls, a fourth-grader.
Another activity in Snyder's art room affects the entire school.
Twenty-four student paintings of dinosaurs line the walls of Booker T. Washington.
They, too, serve a two-fold purpose. Art students had the opportunity to create and everyone has the opportunity to learn, thanks to a dinosaur tour around the school.
Snyder often conducts the tour, telling which class created which mural, and telling the names of each creature.
The Booker T tour ends in the art room where participants get involved with a hands-on dig for fossilized ``dinosaur remains,'' then watch the hatching of what Snyder calls a baby ``DinosARTus'' puppet.
The fossilized dig is a little out of the ordinary.
``Bones are imbedded in plaster of Paris underneath some dirt,'' Snyder said. ``The kids, using paint brushes, poke around and unearth the bones.''
Those bones are real.
``I found a deer by the side of the road and buried it,'' Snyder said. ``A year later, I unearthed it for the bones.''
The ``birth'' process works like this: A box covered by an old cloth contains a ``dinosaur egg'' in a nest of straw. Inside the egg is a dinosaur hand puppet.
It moves around with the help of a wagging finger, giving the illusion of something alive inside. Then, off goes the cloth and out comes the baby dinosaur puppet.
Snyder has still more going to keep the youngsters fascinated.
There's an Italian puppet named Mona Lisa and a Mona Lisa montage - cartoons, sketches, anything connected with the estimable lady.
Snyder, whose father, the Rev. Roger Snyder is a retired Episcopalian minister, is a booster for what she calls ``offbeat education,'' noting ``most art teachers are not as theatrical as I am.
``My success in the classroom is because I really love teaching,'' she said, ``and the students and I get something from each other.''
Snyder also promotes positive thinking, keeping a praise-filled jar in her room.
``Anytime someone says something positive to me I write it down and put it in the jar,'' she said, showing such compliments as ``you're brilliant'' and ``you're a gold mine.
``I enjoy every little thing,'' Snyder said. ``Every day I touch, smell the flowers. I love the moment.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
Janette Snyder uses innovative techniques to teach art and music at
Booker T. Washington.
by CNB