Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Preschool class uses art to aid sick kids
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It's been quite a year for Andrea Micklem's preschool class at Roanoke's Grandin Court Elementary School. How many other 4- and 5-year-olds can say they've learned about illness and recovery and raised thousands of dollars for a good cause before entering first grade?
It started with Libby Jamison, a little girl living in Denmark who was visiting relatives in Roanoke last summer. While in town, she was diagnosed with leukemia.
She didn't return to Denmark but enrolled instead in Micklem's class.
But she had to leave in the fall for chemotherapy. She returned, about eight weeks later, earlier than expected, Micklem said. Libby, 5, is now in complete remission.
But her absence and her illness got the class talking as Micklem invited speakers to come and talk to her students about leukemia. One thing led to another and, in February, the class started making notecards decorated with students' artwork.
The school system's printing office printed the cards, which the class sold for $10 for a pack of 18. So far the students have raised $2,400, which they will donate to the Children's Miracle Network on Thursday, the last day of school, during a ceremony complete with an oversized check.
"We've had a lot of success," Micklem said. "I've had orders from Illinois and South Carolina."
Part of the project's success can be attributed to the more open-ended preschool curriculum. There are no standardized tests to prepare for, after all, Micklem said.
"There's not been another year like this," she said. "Having Libby in our room has sort of been our jump-start for the whole thing. It's been great."
Libby, by the way, will be attending Crystal Spring Elementary School in the fall.
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And speaking of Crystal Spring, the school recently welcomed home a team of Odyssey of the Mind contestants from a whirlwind trip to Iowa last week. The team placed second in the world finals in a competition in which students were tasked with building a balsa wood structure designed to support as much weight as possible.
James Madison Middle School also took second in its division.
"It was very nerve-racking," said Sarah Perkins, a seventh-grader at James Madison.
Nevertheless, she had a good time. "We met a lot of people from all over the world."
Odyssey of the Mind is a roughly 30-year-old competition in which schools compete in problem-solving drills and perform skits.
This year's world finals took over the campus of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.
"All the people there were very friendly," said Emily Perkins, a Crystal Spring fifth-grader who attended the competition and is Sarah's sister.
