When Chautauqua Elementary teachers Shanon Browne and Karen Barich asked islander Rose Belknap to be the artist-in-residence for the fourth- grade birding program, Belknap promptly agreed.

No stranger to the program, Belknap has enjoyed teaching bird art to the students on and off for nine years, but her last time was in 2013, when the program began to peter out.

“The birding program was not supported by the former principal and was almost totally gone,” Belknap said, “but this year, with a new principal and a united teaching team, they wanted to go back to having each student produce a painting.”

Unlike previous years when Belknap taught one or two of the fourth-grade classes, this year she had all 100 students.

“Each student picked one of 26 birds and learned how to transfer the image to good paper before painting it,” she said.

With the completion of the acrylic paintings, Browne scanned each one to create cards to sell, with proceeds going to charity.

Belknap worked with Harsi Parker of Vashon Audubon, who chose the 26 birds, all of which the students might have seen on field trips to the Nisqually Delta.

The program includes an expanded science curriculum, field trips, slide shows, bird calls, bird skins and painting the birds.

“Art and science are like fraternal twins, they go hand in hand,” Belknap said. “By pairing the two, everyone wins.”