[Music]
Walden Pond art school is teaching
children about animals landscapes all
the natural wonders of the earth and
then transforms them into art owner and
teacher Roxanna Newsom is here to tell
us all about it good afternoon this is
fascinating so long pot it's been it's
one of those institutions in town right
it actually is it's kind of a hidden gem
it's been here since 1985 it's been a
part of my life for 20 years when my
oldest son was a student at Walden Pond
I fell in love with it then and then I
was lucky enough to buy it seven years
ago and it has been a treat and how
would you describe it in one sentence I
describe it as in nature school it's a
nature school we teach the children
about nature all about the incredible
wonders that mother earth gives us every
day and then we do art that complements
the lessons that we're teaching them so
it's not just like it's really an
extracurricular school so kids can go to
their regular school from you know eight
to four and then come to Walden Pond for
an after school class we have daytime
classes for the younger kids so we have
12 different class berries a week that
we teach and there's any ways to
incorporate nature things such as what
we're doing today absolutely and so this
is called Gaia taco day otaku fish
printing it's a Japanese art technique
that was started in the 1800's and it's
the way the Japanese fishermen used to
record and make a record of the catches
that the catch that they caught every
day so they would cover it with ink and
then print it on paper at Walden Pond we
let the kids cover it with paint and
it's really a fun way to create a
beautiful art so I can't lie about the
size for children to be really creative
with color and to learn about kind of
actually learning about nature they
learn about the fish yes so you're gonna
paint it that's what you're gonna do
Mike you're gonna paint the whole thing
one color and then what I always try to
encourage the kids at Walden Pond to do
is pick a contrasting color for the fin
so you would pick up you know if you're
gonna paint the fish and even even paint
the eye don't be afraid the kids love to
touch the eye
we ask wishy is it hard they count the
fins they about the dorsal fin so it's
really a way it's a teaching method for
us to use to bring as we've been saying
to bring nature into the classroom I
feel like it's more memorable to for
them to actually have this fish and
actually fish it really is it's very
memorable and then you know they will
always add something more to they're
gonna add polka dots they're gonna add
stripes we even had a child one time
turn their fish into a full-on camo fish
you know they really go to town with
this
they take their time we have to
encourage them to move a little bit
quickly because you don't want that
paint to get too dry remember you're
gonna transfer that into this case we're
gonna transfer it onto a t-shirt so
that's a pretty absorbent you know piece
of cloth you can also do this are doing
paper the other thing that I wanted to
show everyone is that if you're a little
bit squeamish with the fish you can also
use a sponge and so this is an example
of the fish sponge sponge that we just
cut into the shape of a fish you can use
that as well if you're a little bit
squeamish painting the real fish but I
think the real fish you know the kid is
always learning in a different way
just that is absorbed that much better
that's remembered I think so I really do
I think visual learning is super
important for children for children and
it gives them a way as you guys were
saying a way to remember they'll go home
and say mommy daddy I got to paint a
fish today and they learned about the
fish they learned that we're studying
Hawaii and we're studying the fish that
swim in the oceans around Hawaii and at
the same time we bring a fish into the
school so it's really you travel a lot
and what you do I would love to travel
more I loved I do love to travel and it
does inspire me and I think that
everything okay kind of on mother earth
time to do the prints okay
did we get his eyeball yeah thank you
yeah you definitely want to put some
black on the eye
good okay so now you see your colors if
I had time what you would really want to
do honestly is I can't do it on the
paper you're gonna kind of clean up
around that but yeah don't worry about
it it'll still be beautiful I'm just
gonna take a plain old white t-shirt
okay I'm gonna put this kind of right on
top of it and what you guys can do it
you're just gonna push down do it and
you want to be sure with your fingers
that you have actually felt the kind of
the bullet shape of the fish
as well as the Finns because the more
you push down and more of the paint will
transfer onto the t-shirt you might hear
that squishy sound underneath I put some
wax paper in there because otherwise the
paint will come from the front all the
way to the back ages at Walden Pond it's
three to older we actually have older
kid classes so right now we have some
kids that are even 12 and 13 that are
coming back for more more Walden Pond
it's a really fun way to connect you're
ready to see it this is the tada moment
as the kids at Walden Pond sound more
information just go to ese live.com and
click on the as seen on ese live tab
thank you guys