"Paint and Sip" customized for Tahoe Valley Elementary students

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Budding Van Goghs, Monets and O'Keeffes are honing their talents in the Tahoe Valley Elementary Library every Wednesday when Lake Tahoe Paint and Sip comes to help them them. Only thing different from the adult version of their unique painting classes is what is sipped.....the students get to sip water.

Easels and canvases are set up on every table for classes of first through fifth graders. The budding artists sit with brush in hand, waiting for direction of the Lake Tahoe Paint and Sip teacher, Craig Newman, who himself is a product of South Lake Tahoe schools.

On April 4, Mrs. Kiger's third graders were learning how to paint a giraffe and surfboard on a blue sky with cloud background. Newman took each student step-by-step through the process over 1.5 hours of painting class.

Paint and Sip owner Dawnda Smith covers the cost of supplies and Newman's time. She, Kiger and the school librarian wander around the room, watching the kids as they follow Newman's patient teaching for 90 whole minutes.

With budget cuts in education across the country, art instruction hasn't been the focus, but with STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) education, its importance is realized in a new way.

In Leonardo da Vinci's era five hundred years ago, art and science were seamless. Now, educators are realized art education teaches risk-taking and creative problem-solving that can be applied to math, health care, science, engineering and climate change.