CHAMPAIGN — When students enter the new Washington Elementary School this fall, they will see a mural that will take them on a visual journey from the old Washington school to their new school.

The mural has an image of their old school, and bricks taken from the building. It features houses representing the community surrounding the school, and the faces of its students.

Symbols relating to science, technology, math and engineering represent the new school's theme. And a DNA strand, with footprints representing Washington's annual walkathon, runs the length of the mural.

The artwork that will grace a support column at the school's entrance was created by its students.

Washington's longtime art teacher Shauna Carey conceived of the project to create the mural. She brought in Suzie Berkes, a Danville ceramic and brick sculpture artist, as an artist-in-residence for two months this spring at Washington school.

"We wanted this project to bridge from the old school to the new school for the kids," Berkes said. "This process was intended to help them transition. It was not the product so much as getting them to step back and remember, what was important about the old school?"

Berkes painted one of the bricks from the old school gold, telling the children they can touch it for good luck when they are entering the new school. She wanted something light and not so serious as the math and science concepts depicted elsewhere on the artwork.

"It's shiny and attractive and inviting," Berkes said of the gold brick. "And (it represents) how precious the school was."

Carey originally thought of creating a mural for a small wall in a garden at the back of the school.

"The architect said, 'I've got the perfect space for it.' It kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger," Carey said.

She applied for a grant from the Illinois Arts Council and thought she would hear at the beginning of the school year if her application was successful. She didn't learn she would get the $3,000 grant until late February.

It paid for Berkes' residency at the school, and Carey also used $7,000 remaining from her 2006 National Teacher of the Year award for the project.

But Carey, Berkes and the students were on a tight timeline to complete the mural before the school year ended.

"I knew how professional it had to be, because it was going to be on (the school) permanently. I knew we had to find a way to get kids' ideas into a visual format and organize them in a cohesive way," Carey said.

Different grade levels worked on different parts of the mural. All the students came up with ideas and images for the mural, and Carey and Berkes chose the ones that would translate best into clay and symbolize the ideas of all the students.

The mural includes images representing Washington's bilingual program — clasped hands with the words for "friend" and "learn" in English and Spanish, and images from the American and Mexican flags.

It has a figure sitting underneath a tree of knowledge, and an open book. The design came from a drawing by fourth-grader Rebecca Chiligris.

"I love working with clay because you can shape it into anything you want, kind of like imagination," Rebecca said.

There are pictures of Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci, Marie Curie and George Washington Carver. Booker T. Washington is on the mural, as is a picture of Carey and the late Bob Smith, a longtime music teacher at the school.

Fifth-graders Laura Mata and Maria Alvarado worked on a portrait of the two of them playing as kindergarten students, created from a photo in one of the school's scrapbooks.

"We were best friends, and we were always together," Maria remembered, adding the two made sure the picture included the braids she wore in kindergarten.

At the top of the mural are images of test tubes and beakers, magnets and the solar system. Throughout it are fingerprints from adults, including teachers, parents, community members and architects and engineers for the project.

The students learned how to work with clay, from rolling it out and molding it to applying glaze and making the scraps into something usable. The fourth- and fifth-grade students worked on the mural in a workshop setting — doing what needed to be done on a given day, leaving it for another student to finish, then perhaps working on a different section the next day.

"We treated them as professional clay artists," Carey said. "They learned every step of the process. I think some of these kids have as much knowledge of clay as high school kids."

Berkes fired the pieces over several days at a kiln at the University of Illinois.

Carey had hoped the mural would be installed on the new building before the school year ended, but the site work at the school needs to be finished first.

The mural is to be installed sometime in June.

Berkes and Carey are delighted with how the mural turned out.

"It turned out fantastic. The kids really did such a great job on it," Carey said, noting the majority of the work on the mural was done by 9- and 10-year-olds.

"I think it really is something both of us envisioned," Berkes added. "We're very, very pleased we pulled it off."