The masked students of Windsor Elementary

By JOHN McCALLUM

Editor

Gooey.

Slimy.

Cold, like someone left a refrigerator on your head.

Such were the verdicts by some of the approximately 110 Windsor Elementary School fifth-graders who took part in an art project put on by Eastern Washington University recreation professor Dr. Barb Brock's arts in recreation class.

The project? Why, making masks of course.

Brock's Eastern students, who range from recreation management majors to children's studies and therapeutic recreation majors, each led a group of four Windsor students in making what were essentially papier-mâché masks, but without the paper.

The Eastern students first smeared Vaseline on the faces of their Windsor charges, and began forming the masks by taking 4-6-inch long strips of cloth, dipping it in plaster and laying them on the contours of the students' faces.

After hardening for about 10 minutes, the masks easily pop off and are then decorated according to a teacher-chosen theme.

This is the ninth year Brock's classes have been doing the masks project at Windsor, she said, but for the first eight of those years it was with one or two fifth-grade classes taking part. The Windsor area of the Cheney School District has seen tremendous growth in the past couple of years, and enrollment at the school has grown.

Brock said she emailed Windsor fifth-grade teacher Jennifer Evans to see if there were classes this year who were interested in the project. Evans replied she knew of about four who might want to do it, and emailed them asking if any wanted to participate.

“She emailed back saying, ‘Barb, they all want to do it. Is there any way we can do it for all of them?'” Brock said, adding that when she approached her students with the idea, they told her “no problem.”

Before venturing out into a real-world classroom, the Eastern students first practice their project on each other. Once on site, Brock said the project provides a hands-on opportunity to apply their skills in teaching, leading and organization of a special event.

“They do it all,” Brock said.

Most of the students will be working with children in some form after they complete their majors, and some land in careers where they are working with adults and senior citizens.

“Any of the projects we do are compatible with different generations,” Brock said.

For the fifth-graders at Windsor, it was a chance to have a little fun applying a medium they may have worked with before in a unique manner. The general consensus was that having ones face covered in wet, plaster-soaked cloth was pretty cool, even a bit cold.

“It felt like strips of cold water were being laid on your face,” Kirk Maat said afterwards.

“It felt slimy, like a herd of slugs were going across your face,” John Ford added.

Some went a bit farther than the cold and slimy description. Adrianna Suiter said it just felt “weird,” while others like Caleb Prophet said it felt “smooth,” instead of gooey. All of them agreed with Casey Phelps.

“Good. Awesome,” he said. “Good and slimy.”

John McCallum can be reached at [email protected]