It's hard to believe that half the school year is behind us already! The students have been doing some amazing work in drawing, painting, sculpture, printmaking and crafts. I am delighted to be working with intern Nan Howard, from Towson University. She has brought some exciting ideas for projects that we will be creating in the coming weeks before spring break. Please check out our section about Ms. Howard and her great plans.

The spring brings quite a few art shows for the Howard County Public Schools. March is YOUTH ART MONTH! Our second grader, Gabrielle Brown, will be a featured artist for the postcard promoting the show at the Central Library in Columbia, March 4 to 30. There will be a show titled "Structures" at the Howard County Center for the Arts, opening March 14 and running through April 25. The Mall at Columbia will host the 36th Annual Spring Student Exhibition March 25 through April 6, with a reception April 2 at 6:45 p.m. Get detailed information on the art exhibit schedule »»

Square One art project will be arriving soon with a magnet of your child's art! We encourage you to order an item from the Square One brochure as a fund-raiser for the school and art department. Your child's picture can be printed on T-shirts, handbags, pot holders, mugs and other items. We want to order more bulletin boards to display student work and, possibly, track lighting. Thank you very much for your support!

I want to thank you so very much for all the incredible donations that have been sent to the art room. From fabric to lace to wood—wow! What a kind and generous community of parents! We have had puppets sewn, wood delivered and stacked, and when Gemini florist closed, Dominic's mom brought a truck load of great stuff for us. I also have been so grateful for the little things, such as milk jugs and cool boxes with miscellaneous items! Thanks so very much.

I will be writing more about some exciting plans that we have for the 5th graders in the near future! Stay posted!

Our primary grades are starting off the school year by learning how to draw, using five basic shapes: the circle, dot, straight line, curved line and angle line. This concept is part of Mona Brookes' book, "Drawing With Children." The premise is that all subject matter contains these five elements and if a child can see them, and break them down with ease, then they can be drawn. This building and understanding will follow the students through every year of instruction as a common vocabulary of representing what they see. Brookes likens it to how the notes on a scale are the building blocks for all music. When she was in Washington, D.C., years ago to present at the Kennedy Center, we had lunch together. I had written her about the parallels of her method of teaching and that of the Chinese Mustard Seed Manual. In Asian art, there is also a basis alphabet of instruction, but with the bamboo brush. We had a lively discussion and I learned that she originally developed this method to help students with special needs. She saw how it began to benefit them with their writing. The next three paragraphs were written by Brookes:

"Teachers in San Diego who taught reading reported that children who learned to draw and see through the five line and circle shapes had dramatic increases in letter recognition and reading readiness. These teachers noticed that the motivation to read expanded when the children drew the characters and subjects from their books. Drawing the content of science, geography, and social studies lessons resulted in noticeable differences in speed of learning and retention. When teachers used the abstract design lessons to teach math concepts, they witnessed children break through conceptual blocks with ease while having fun.

"Teachers observed that students who had attention problems could learn through drawing to stay on track for unbelievable lengths of time. In order to achieve realistic drawings the students automatically learned to focus, concentrate and problem solve. With motivation at its peak, teachers witnessed peak learning of course content. After a year of using the Mona Brooke's program, school districts began reporting as much as 20 percent increases in reading, writing and math scores. I watched the same phenomena occur when teachers integrated music, movement, visual games, journal writing and other artistic fields of study into their lessons.

"The arts are coming back, stronger than ever, whether they get funded or not. In the past 10 years, the awareness and implementation of the arts have increased dramatically. At a time when art budgets are still threadbare, teachers have educated themselves in how to use the arts as one of the most powerful teaching tools they have. The reason the shift is taking place is because it works."