Temple Telegram

   What started out last year as a simple drawing assignment grew into a wonderful project that gained Kennedy-Powell Elementary School students worldwide attention.
   When art teacher Donna Staten took some of her wooden nutcracker collection to school, the students were fascinated with the wonder and magic of them.
   As the students wanted to know more about them, the classes went to the Internet for information about the history of nutcrackers.
   This led to a friendly correspondence with Arlene Wagner,. "The Nutcracker Lady" of www.nutcrackermuseum.com. She sent the students pictures and brochures from the museum, located in Leavenworth Wash.
   Ms. Wagner added a new section to the museum's website called "Kids Love Nutcrackers" featuring photos of Kennedy-Powell students and their nutcracker designs.
   She also has photos of the Kennedy-Powell students working on their designs posted in the museum. The museum is a National Heritage Foundation Museum.
   This year, all Kindergarten through 5th grade students had a chance to design a nutcracker in art class.
   The students drew their designs on blank paper, then colored with pencils and other media. Some of the older classes overpainted with glitter glue.
   Nearly 100 of them are currently on display at the Temple Public Library, along with about 60 wooden carved ones that belong to Ms. Staten's son, Ryan. The exhibit will be in the large glass display case at the library entrance through Jan 1.
   Also, the nutcracker designs can be seen in two other exhibits. Several hundred are on view in the School's Internet art gallery at Artsonia and the City Art Gallery on the Kennedy-Powell campus is full of them.
   Ms. Staten said, "The children studied Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker Suite' in their music class. They've been saturated with the nutcracker."
   She went on to explain that the nutcracker has become a symbol of the holiday without being a denominational symbol. This frees up the children to not only do traditional renditions of the nutcracker but expand with their own imaginations.
   "I was letting some of the kids draw and they could and they could draw whatever they wanted to into nutcrackers. There were Barbie dolls and some camouflaged soldiers as well," she said.
   Traditions start in many ways and at least this one can be pinpointed to Ms. Staten's class.
   "I think we will probably do this every year," she said.