In one wing of West Point Elementary School, third-grade art students draw pictures of the “habitats” of Georgia, from the mountains to the piedmont to the swamp.

In another wing, another group of third-graders in music class act out a song about a crocodile that could be found in one of those swamps. It’s a simple art project and a simple song about a woman riding a crocodile – with perhaps a biology “survival of the fittest” lesson thrown in.

For the school, however, it’s the results of an integrated curriculum that’s taken hours of planning and thousands of dollars to put in place. And it appears to be working. By incorporating science and social studies in art and music lessons, students’ test scores have gone up. The fifth-graders at the school now have a 98 percent pass rate in statewide social studies tests and are above the state average in science scores, said principal Karen Cagle.

Perhaps most importantly, the program allows the school to keep a fine arts program and hire full-time art and music teachers, despite cuts in funding.

When the state made drastic funding cuts five years ago, Troup County Schools chose to cut back on art and music teachers. Elementary schools would “share” teachers, offering music for half the year and art during the other half.

That put West Point Elementary in a quandary – it had just begun planning to integrate art and music into its regular courses.

“We had big plans,” Cagle said. “Our students weren’t doing as well in math and science, and this is one way we thought it would make more sense.”

The school was the first in the district to do its own fundraising to hire full-time art and music teachers, which it’s able to keep year-round. The school’s parent-teacher organization not only has helped fund the jobs, but recently donated $3,000, which was used to buy materials. Music teacher Tamara Stokes and Cheryl Morrison, the art teacher, say finding supplies for the integrated studies is their biggest challenge. They haven’t been deterred, however. Cagle brings in substitutes one day a quarter and lets the teachers off to plan the curriculum together.

The hallways are lined with the results. Third-graders made weathervanes after a unit on weather. The second grade class drew pictures of plants and animals after a science unit on that topic. And the fourth graders painted pictures of ships after a unit on exploration.

“You can see what a great plan it was,” said Morrison, who was Troup County Schools’ first art teacher 20 years ago. “They’re not just coloring all the time.”

Even Cagle said jokingly that fitting a specific subject matter can be hard, especially combining music and science.

“We always joke that there’s only so many songs you can sing about a rock,” she laughs.

Stokes, however, is up to the challenge.

“At times it’s difficult,” she said. “I do a lot of research online. It really helps the students when it’s all connected.”

Morrison, especially, is excited to see the fine arts continuing in the school.

“For so many of them, this is what they shine in,” she said. “I joke that (President-elect) Barack Obama got ‘yes, we can’ from me. I have a sign in my room that says ‘yes you can.’ So many of these children say ‘I can’t.’ If you don’t try, you don’t know what you can do.”

Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.