Waves of runners

For my young artists, these marathon runners are almost life-size. They are creating a mural to energize racers arriving at the Mile 16 aid station during the Dallas White Rock Marathon next week. The photo is of the work in progress. Thekids have added swooshes and lightning to the shoes for added speed, and drawn IPods for some racers. Yes, the runners are all still bald, but that will be remedied soon.

This project fits in with our travel unit. We are considering modes of transportation, journeys, and destinations in our art. We'll add maps of the race course around White Rock Lake to the types of maps we study. Runners come to Dallas from all over the country and around the world to run "The Rock". Maps help kids understand point of view and aerial perspective. We may look at the helicopter coverage on WFAA of runners on the course to help make that connection. But of course that will require me properly programming the VCR for race morning!

The preschoolers were very excited about the big numbers for the paper racers. My youngest taught me well so many years ago. When he was three he desperately wanted a shirt with a number so he could kick a soccer ball around. His bigger brothers had uniforms for soccer and t-ball, and the shirts had big numbers, of course.

Having just taken the Buick for service, I knew where I might get some numbers for our paper runners. Thanks so much to Steve Fortner of Ewing Buick's service department!

"The Rock" will have about 14,000 participants this year, not counting the mural racers! Speaking of numbers, that's a lot of cups of Gatorade at the Dallas Running Club's Mile 16 station.