Country on Concrete

U.S. geography is moving outdoors at Frank Layden Elementary School, Frontenac, thanks to a map of the United States painted on the playground.

A gift of AT&T Pioneers, the map was painted Sunday by parent volunteers and several students, working under the guidance of DeAnn Sullivan, Wichita.

“I’ve done about 60 of these, including maybe 40 in the Wichita area,” she said. “The AT&T Pioneers do these across the United States. The furthest one I’ve done was in Louisiana, where my little sister is a teacher.”

The local connection is Tim Souder, AT&T Pioneers member, who previously arranged for a map to be painted in Arma.

“I know our Pioneers group does maps, with the cost coming out of the Pioneers budget,” Souder said. “Usually all we require is volunteers or helpers.”

He approached school officials, who were enthusiastic about having a map.

“This is an unlimited opportunity for kids in kindergarten through fifth grade to turn the playground into a classroom,” said Mark Allai, Frank Layden principal. “It will be kind of a cool things for the kids to come out and play. They can do state capitols or follow the Oregon Trail. This gives them another way to learn. It’s also one more example of  how the community supports the schools.”

Volunteers Heather Eckstein and Susan Hogard, parents and PTO officers, were happy to spend their Sunday afternoon painting on states, including Hawaii.

“This is a good opportunity for students to come out and take what they’ve learned in the classroom and apply it,” Eckstein said.

Hogard added that the map will be good for students in all the grades.

The first step in map making was to stencil in the outline of the United States, divided into the various states. Sullivan brings the plastic stencil, too.

“We buy our stencils from a Pioneer Club in Kansas City which makes them and sells them as a fundraiser,” she said. “I can use a stencil 30 to 40 times.”

Allai said this was a good year to do the map because of the upcoming election.

“The states aren’t just red and blue on our map,” he said.

In fact, they’re also yellow, orange and green, with Souder putting a dab of paint inside each state outline to indicate what color it should be.

The overcast skies were a concern to him and the volunteers.

“If it rains before the paint is dry, we’ll have a psychedelic USA on our playground,” Allai said.

Sullivan said that the humidity and wind Sunday were the two hardest things to contend with while painting a map. However, the paint is designed to hold up against the weather, though it will fade with time and eventually need to be repainted.

“One map that I painted 10 years ago is still there, and another one I had to repair the next year,” she said. “The big thing is, how many little shoes with sand or gravel on the soles will walk over them, which is  just like sandblasting them. This map is in a protected area and I think it should last a long time.”