By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Rita Legleiter misses her art students - all 500 of them.
She teaches students in grades K-5 at Roosevelt Elementary School in Hays USD 489 and three classes of students at Lincoln Elementary.
Legleiter spent Thursday evening and early Friday morning creating her own artwork for students and the other teachers and staff at both schools.
A huge Happy May Day message made of construction paper floral bouquets was stapled to her north-facing fence at her home on Agnes Street.
She used paint pens and markers to list a class and its teacher in the center of each flower while the petals were adorned with the classroom students' names.
Interspersed among the three bouquets were a multi-colored butterfly, a red inchworm and a blue dragonfly.
Legleiter has been teaching elementary art for 14 years. She calls her students "little tiny geniuses," even though they often don't recognize their talents.
"All of them are so good at something different. You never know what's going to pop out of them," Legleiter said.
"When they look at their work, they think it's just okay. When I put it up on display and they see it, they say 'oh my gosh, that's so beautiful!' Then they they look at the name, and it's theirs, and realize they did that."
During art class, Legleiter will present her students with an idea. The students often come up with more ideas.
"They help me discover more."
A sign at the end of the mural included written messages from Legleiter to her students and co-workers. Classrooms in Kansas closed March 18 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Legleiter says teaching her students in a stay-at-home environment has been hard.
"I think it's been hard on kids, on parents, on us. I think everybody's doing the best they can.
"I know the kids are doing art. I don't necessarily get to see it all. But that's okay because their parents catch me up on Zoom meetings."
She also uses a Youtube channel for Roosevelt School called OOTBA, for "Out Of The Box Art" and her USD 489 Continuous Learning Plan Resources website has lots of choices for at-home art activities.
Any child in Hays is invited to contribute their own artwork or note to Legleiter's fence project.
"If any kids want to make a flower or a bug or just a note to your teachers or school who you miss, just set them on my front porch and I'll staple them up on the fence.
"Then we'll have one big giant May Day theme for everybody."
Legleiter also suggests art of any type can be displayed at a child's home.
"Put it in your window, on the front door, or even a tree."
Her husband, Tim, who works in construction, helped staple the Happy May Day display on their fence. He wasn't keen on the idea of Rita using chalk art on the sidewalk and he really didn't want her to paint their fence.
So, construction paper it is, stapled to the fence.
"Tim even went to Walmart and used FaceTime on his phone with me to make sure he was getting the right color paint pens and markers I needed," Rita said with a smile.
She's hoping the flowers planted in front of the fence will bloom this weekend, making the scene even more vibrant.