ARTICLE
North Falmouth Elementary School will be joined by Boston artist, Caleb Neeon to create an entry-way mural at the school in February 2020. The idea grew out of the book “McElligot's Pool” by Dr. Seuss in which a boy, Marco, imagines all kinds of sea creatures living in a small pool of water. All students will read the book as part of the school's "One Book, One Community" project. Each teacher in the school also receives a copy of the book for their classroom library. Caleb will be an artist-in-residence at North Falmouth during the week of February 3. He will be painting a mural in the front entrance with an ocean theme, inspired by the message in McElligot's Pool. Students will be creating drawings with Caleb that he will incorporate into the final mural. Students will also create 3D projects in art class that are inspired by the artist's mural and WHOI scientist presentations. Event's tied to this book include: • January 6, 2020: featured a brief assembly in the cafeteria, where Principal Tim Adams introduced this year's book by reading a portion of the book and explaining this year's projects and events. • Multiple assemblies for all grades with visiting scientists from WHOI to learn about different ocean habitats and the creatures that live there o January 13, 2020: Assembly for Grades 2 and 3 o January 15, 2020: Assembly for Grades K and 1 o January 21, 2020: Assembly for Grade 4 • January 23, 2020: Assembly with Artist Caleb Neelon to learn about his art, process, and previous work. Students will then begin creating their drawings & 3D projects. • February 3-7, 2020: Artist Caleb Neelon will paint the mural. The following organizations assisted with this project: Eight Cousins Books, Falmouth Education Foundation, and North Falmouth Elementary PTO. Kathryn Sodaitis, art teacher, helped initiate the One Book project and created the concept of an art collaboration between the artist and students which follows the theme of the book.