"Last year, as a school project, the kids painted lighthouse murals," said Sarah Hemendinger, an art teacher at Oak Haven. "We thought it would be nice to do another project that is close to home."

For this project, students enlisted the help of senior volunteer Armand Lanoie, whom the students all call "Pop," Hemendinger said.

"Pop comes to the school twice every week," she said. "For him to volunteer his time like this is wonderful. He is funny with the kids and the kids all really love him. They look forward to him coming. It is a great experience for children because he offers one-on-one time and some kids are really starved for that kind of attention."

Lanoie is a retired optician and an experienced artist, and this is his second year volunteering at Oak Haven, Hemendinger said.

"Working with the kids on this project has been wonderful," Lanoie said. "It gives me a new lease on life. I lost my wife a couple years ago and things got pretty lonely. I like working on projects like this."

Lanoie came up with the idea for the project. He researched the history of Coventry and created miniature versions of historical buildings in the town. He also built a glass case for the project to be displayed in, Hemendinger said.

Once the buildings were built, the children painted each building and the landscape. The students also created their own drawings of historical buildings and wrote poems to go along with the drawings, Hemendinger said.

"The students had so much fun and they learned a lot, too," Hemendinger said. "This is the town they live in and they have some really nice historical buildings around town. The students were amazed at the mills and at the fact that there were once no cars in Coventry."

Some of the buildings in the diorama include Waterman Tavern, Read School House, and some historical mills and farms. "Most Coventry residents would recognize all the buildings in the project," Lanoie said. "Some of the buildings are not in existence anymore, but they reflect the era. The kids tried to include activities of the era into the diorama, like wood floating down the river, farm animals, and people gardening."

Every student in the school participated in the project, Lanoie said.

"I really played with the children's abilities," Lanoie said. "I had the younger children paint the bigger things like the sky and the grass. I had the older students do the more detailed pieces."

Lanoie and Hemendinger said they were happy with the way the project turned out and how much the students learned.

"I'm thrilled with the way it turned out," Lanoie said. "The kids really did a great job. It came out exactly how I imagined. Coventry's buildings are rich and full of history and the kids seemed to really enjoy learning about what Coventry was like in the past."