TUSTIN : Parents, Teacher Add Color to Campus

A few surprises await students at W.R. Nelson Elementary School when classes resume in September.

Twenty-four-foot-long “caterpillars” with letters of the alphabet inside of them have been painted on the sidewalk near the kindergarten classrooms and on the playground close to the first- and second-grade classrooms.

A U.S. map, measuring 16 feet long and 27 feet wide, also has been painted in the playground for third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Parents painted the caterpillars and the U.S. map earlier this month to add a “touch of color” and as educational tools, according to Polly Martin, who coordinated the project.

“I think it helps make our school look nicer,” said Martin. “The children will be happy to see them.”

Half a dozen parents and one teacher participated in the two-day project, organized by the school’s Parent-Teachers Assn.

“It’s a good social activity for the parents,” said PTA President Tammis Berkheimer, adding that she got the idea from other schools in the Tustin Unified School District that use the paintings to add color to their campuses.

The caterpillar paintings are in pairs--a “boy” caterpillar with the letters in blue and a “girl” caterpillar with the letters in pink. The letters are inside the belly of the caterpillars, which were painted green.

“Nature is important to the kids,” said Jean Brown, a first-grade teacher who helped paint the caterpillars. “The more we expose them to insects and animals, the better we are.”

Sandy Lack, whose son Ryan will be entering first grade in September, said that the paintings may also encourage parents to get involved with the school.

“I want people walking in the campus to say, ‘Wow, who did this?’ And they may want to get involved,” Lack said.