Shoe Bird kids at Keenum's House

Shoe Bird kids at Keenum's House
Photo by Russ Houston

December 8, 2011

Dr. and Mrs. Keenum hosted several third graders from around the state at the President's Home Wednesday for a reception in honor of the students' artwork themed around Eudora Welty's "The Shoe Bird." The art competition was held in conjunction with the university's Maroon Edition First-Year Reading Experience. Older 4-H students from the state literacy team, some of whom also attended Wednesday's reception, dressed as the colorful bird characters from Welty's only book written for children. During the semester, they presented dramatic readings to their elementary-age audiences, and the young students responded by drawing pictures of scenes from the story. The project celebrated creativity through dramatic and visual arts, but the underlying goal was to give the children a lesson in reading comprehension.