SALLY LAMAS, local Muralist and Sinsheimer Elementary Kindergarten Instructional Aide in San Luis Obispo, CA, has organized students and teachers at various grade levels and community volunteers to complete FIVE STUDENT MURALS by June 2025. Each mural, was completed and gives a nod to their bee mascot and "Stinger" values. We're working to raise $9,000 more to offset time and materials in this complex project. TO SEE MORE PHOTOS, go to INSTAGRAM@sallylamas.

1. COMPLETED - One giant hopscotch, "Rocket Ship to the Cosmos," was painted on the playground asphalt by Mrs. Manning's Kindergarten class and their big buddy 5th graders in Mrs. Palmer's class (rolled background, stenciled stars, moons, comets, eclipses) and 6th graders from Mr. Parsons' and Mrs. Feldman's classes (painted phases of the moon for jumping steps). Adult volunteers painted in details of the rocket ship (wings, nose cone) and lettered in the character traits valued by the school community such as: being safe, respectful, achievement-oriented, brave, creative, hard-working, etc. As students hop through the moon phases, they jump out into the cosmos with the positive message: "The Universe is YOURS!"

2. COMPLETED - One, 5-circuit labyrinth encourages students and staff to "breathe...walk...and find your center." Individuals amble toward the center beehive where they can "find gratitude for all we have." The labyrinth can be a calming place - in contrast to the ongoing school construction and noise. Mrs. Laursen's third graders measured and chalked out the path using math skills and measuring tapes. Community volunteers painted in the labyrinth path so 3rd graders could stencil bees, stars, or flowers along the outer edge. Mr. Parsons' and Mrs. Feldman's 6th graders, and select 1st graders and 5th grader brought colored details to the flowers and bees.

3. COMPLETED - One hopscotch, "Rainbow Flowers." Mrs. Oreizi's kindergarten class rolled the background and stenciled flowers and bees in with their 3rd and 4th grade big buddies from Mrs. Campa's class. Mr. Parsons' and Mrs. Feldman's 6th graders supplied the finishing touches to the gold doubloon hopscotch steps, which ends jumping over a pot of gold. Heart-shaped gold pieces spill from the pot and a message lettered into the rainbow frame asks students to, "Find the gold in YOU!" Character trait words which Mrs. Oreizi's class selected for their hopscotch complete the statement, "Stingers are...Brave...Strong...Kind...Loving...etc."

4. COMPLETED - One Garden Mural, designed by One Cool Earth Garden Educator, Marly Miller, and Lead Muralist, Sally Lamas. Students will learn from various parts of the garden ecosystem: aerators & composters (earthworms), plants (nitrogen fixers, companion plants such as squash, beans and corn, etc.), pollinators (bees, butterflies and other insects), and inhabitants (mice, gophers, snakes, caterpillars, lizards, etc.) The mural will serve as a visual aid when teachers are discussing the ecosystem.

5. COMPLETED - One Front Gate Mural, designed by Lead Muralist, Sally Lamas, and Art Teacher, Annie Latzke. This mural welcomes visitors with Stinger pride and gives a nod to our S.O.A.R. goals (Safety, Ownership, Achievement, Respect). Students from various grades learned to scuff and prepare the lightweight, moveable substrate for painting. They rolled the background colors of brown earth, green foliage and blue sky. Each practiced with transfer paper to copy a drawing on paper to the mural substrate. Both Kindergarten classes designed their own flowers and selected color schemes for them. Ms. Lamas and Mrs. Latzke transferred flowers, bees and a hive on the gate mural. Fifth and sixth graders along with community volunteers painted golden bee emblems in each corner and helped paint in kindergarten flower designs. Students at many grade levels witnessed or participated in each aspect of making the mural from start to finish and celebrated the installation at the front gate of the school in June 2025.

This project has required help from the entire village. One person would be hard-pressed to accomplish this significant amount of work in such a short time (almost 2mos), have these creative insights, or manage this number of people without the help of everyone involved. Support from my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Brittani Manning, help from teachers (coordinating times with their classes), students (giving attention, work and joy), custodians (orange cones!), librarian (book carts to shlep paints out to the playground!), Principal Jessica Miller (trust in my vision), monetary donors (supporting this vision), and community volunteers (late evenings in the wind and cold on hands and knees on the asphalt), are all making this project possible.

On all of my public murals, I like to acknowledge every mural helper. For Sinsheimer, I'll write each person involved by name or school class and note each donor on a separate panel for both the Front Gate and Garden Mural, and on Instagram for the asphalt murals. This shows passers-by how many people it truly takes to realize big dreams.

Currently, I have received generous grants from the Atascadero Optimist Club, Rotary Daybreak SLO, and Dan and Liz Krieger, and GoFundMe donors. These donations have helped offset some of the material costs, but not the many hours of organization, communication, material gathering and preparation that it takes to complete such an ambitious project. I'm working to raise $9,000 more to finish paying for materials and honor the time and energy that will be spent bringing this project to fruition. If you would like to become a donor in any amount, you will be duly noted as I've described.

Regardless of funding, I WILL be completing this project. It uniquely uses my talents, social connections and love of growing minds and fulfills my desire to contribute to my village here in SLO.

Thank you for reading our Sinsheimer Elementary story!

Sally Lamas

Muralist, Artist, Writer, Kinder Aide

San Luis Obispo, CA

Instagram@sallylamas