February 1, 2012

While others were taking it easy and munching on leftovers, three Scotia-Glenville HS freshmen - Lydia Zhou, Maddy Carroll and Amanda Duane - spent 10 hours of their holiday break painting huge monkey and tree caricatures on the wall in the Lincoln School gymnasium.

The three art club students painted the large monkeys in trees on the wall behind the ropes where hundreds of Lincoln students will test their climbing skills in the months and years ahead.

Physical education teacher Mark Gatta, who taught Maddy for years and coached her in soccer, proposed painting the monkeys on the wall. He had an idea: "Lincoln has gone bananas" over physical education and staying fit. He took his idea to high school art teacher Stephani Dimopoulos-DiCocco and the high school art club.

Gatta said his plan is that each student in the school will earn a banana to be placed on the trees:

▪ Students who can climb the ropes all the way with just their arms will get a BROWN banana

▪ Students who can climb the ropes all the way with arms and legs will get a YELLOW banana

▪ Students who can climb the ropes to the middle third of the way will get a LIGHT GREEN banana

▪ Students who can climb the ropes to the bottom third of the way will get a DARK GREEN banana

As they make progress, the color of their banana would change. There are six trees representing each grade at the school.

Students in the Skills Development class at the high school will be asked make the individual student bananas that will be attached on the trees.

Here are a few pictures from the Lincoln gymnasium. Click on the picture to enlarge it: