Prairie dogs and burrowing owls have become the muse of young artists at the Davidson Playschool.

Through a recently awarded $4,180 Creative Partnerships Exploration grant, the playschool has brought in Derek Pho, a Saskatoon visual artist, to help the two-, three- and four-year-old students create their own prairie dogs and burrowing owls through papier maché artworks.

Pho made his first visit to the school last Thursday for a session with the kids. During the morning art class with the pre-three students, Pho directed them into filling brown paper bags with other paper to make it into a full rectangular object. The students were then helped to wrap the piece in masking tape.

Pho said he and playschool volunteer Terra Fazakas along with teachers Angela Fahlman and Trudi Smith would then work with the kids to create a prairie dog by covering it with papier maché on his next visit to the pre-three class April 30.

“Being younger students, we hope to help them with the tasks to accomplish the project,” said Pho.

The toddler group will enjoy two visits from Pho for their artwork, while the three-year-olds will have three visits from the artist in making the prairie dogs and the four-year-olds will have five visits in making burrowing owls.

“This will be group art and not just individual,” he said, noting the completed pieces will be displayed as a whole and permanent structure to the public by June. “We’ll just see how it forms together. All the pieces will be involved in some way.”

The Creative Partnership Exploration grant is given out to explore how visual arts can enhance environmental awareness within the classroom, which makes the choice of the prairie dog and the burrowing owl perfect for the project, said Pho.

“The prairie dog is a local animal to Saskatchewan and the burrowing owl is an endangered animal,” he said. “Also we’ll be using as many recycled resources as possible with the project because we’re interested in a sustainable environment.”

In addition to the art classes, the playschool will welcome the burrowing owl centre to the classroom May 9 who will give the students a lesson in the life of the species as well as bring a few live birds into the classroom for the students to see.