Oak Grove mural brings forest to life inside school cafeteria

Thanks to the efforts of an Oak Grove Elementary School worker, students can feel like they are outside without ever leaving the building.
Darla Pool, a part-time worker at the school who does everything from arts and humanities and portfolios at the school, worked off and on all last year to paint an outdoor mural inside the school cafeteria that school officials say does a lot more than just look good.
“The reason she choose this theme is so we can have an educational approach,” noted Oak Grove Principal Regina Foley. “We didn’t want to just have a big bruin on there for a sports mascot, but to do something we could use education wise incorporating all the subjects.”
“It is to relax the students when they come into the cafeteria, and make them feel more relaxed, quieter, and calmer. It is like they are eating outside rather than inside,” Pool noted. “We try to make the pictures very calming, and a cafeteria is not a calm place by any stretch of the imagination.”
Different sections of the mural portray different themes, such as deer playing by a brook, or students saluting the flag, and can be used by different classes.
One section, which is often used by science classes, features real grapevines, an old hornet’s nest, and natural bird’s nests.
“Students can come in, and see how a hornet’s nest looks in its natural habitat. They can look and see which trees have leaves that come off, and which don’t,” Pool noted.
The tree branches are made out of painted paper rolls, and school officials proved that yes there is a practical use for old Christmas trees by using the branches from a few on the mural. Everything is attached to the wall with hot glue and staples.
Foley said many teachers will bring their classes into the cafeteria to work on writing portfolios.
“They can imagine they are in one of pictures,” Foley added.
Pool said art classes will also come in with teachers directing students to think of as many terms as they think that they learned in their visual arts class.
“They can actually sit here, and take turns doing that, or as Mrs. Foley said they can take an imaginary trip writing fiction,” Pool added. “The materials used on walls adjacent to the kitchen had to be fire retardant, and everything is recycled material, which the children can learn how to do by the way we did this.”