FARMINGTON – The tree of life is a symbol of the interconnectedness of all living things. It’s also the symbol of the Franklin Community Health Network.

With that in mind, Donna Driscoll, director of a center providing day care for children of Franklin Memorial Hospital employees, applied for an “Early stARTS” grant to bring a Maine artist to the facility.

Nancy Glassman, an artist and nature lover from Searsmont, was recruited to lead this community of tiny artists, ages 2 to 4, in projects to help them “develop observational skills, explore things about the earth, teach them the elements of design, experience putting materials together in interesting ways and reinforce the children’s sense of wonder,” she said.

Monday morning found the preschoolers scavenging outside for materials such as rocks, grass, twigs and even dandelions for the day’s project, an introduction to mosaics. This, in preparation for Tuesday’s project – a group-created mosaic – will hopefully evoke the tree-of-life motif.

The grant makes it possible for Glassman to spend the week with the Franklin Childcare Services community, working with educators during the children’s naps, providing art projects for the children each morning and working with the children and their parents one evening.

She will be leading the group to create paintings, sculptures and mosaics, with a show Friday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. in the hospital’s Bass Room.

Indoors, students donned bright blue smocks and got to work.

After they washed the rocks in tubs of soapy water, a decidedly tactile experience, Glassman asked the children to look at their rocks and compare their textures, colors, sizes and shapes. She then got to work creating a grout for the mosaics: a mixture of flour, salt, tempera powder, white glue and water. She gave each of the children an opportunity to stir the concoction to smooth, gooey perfection.

After placing the goop on paper plates, the artists used stones and other materials to create their designs.

Gracie Foss, 4, was having a particularly good time using the variety of rocks for her creation. She’s an avid rock collector, according to her mother, Kimberly. “She has thousands of them,” she said.

Glassman said she tries to be flexible in her approach to teaching.

“If a child wants to feel what the paste feels like squishing through his fingers, I try not to have my priorities get in their way. This is what life is, this is their time to be learning, and every little aspect is just fresh and extraordinary to them.”

Early stARTS is a joint effort between the Maine Arts Commission and the Department of Human Services – Office of Child Care and Head Start. Its mission is to ensure quality arts education to preschoolers and to highlight the importance of arts education.

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