With shouts of delight from 320 students echoing through the halls of Green Acres School, principal Kevin Bogatin yanked down the plastic sheet, revealing a mural the entire school spent months making.

Six-feet high and stretching 16-feet down the front hallway, stalks of mosaic corn, strawberries, pumpkins and a rainbow illustrate the "Inch by Inch" theme taken from a favorite song Bogatin taught the children.

"It's about growing and nurturing children," Bogatin said.

Work on the mural began last October with the hiring of Salem artist Anne Stecker, who worked with a focus group of about 20 children to come up with the design.

After each student in the focus group drew their vision of the finished piece, Stecker cut out elements from each to build a paper mosaic template. All 320 Green Acres students then worked on creating the hundreds of clay pieces that make up the mural.

Stecker trained teachers how to use the school's kiln, which needed a bit of dusting off after five years without use.

"It's really revitalized the use of clay. The kiln has been in use nonstop since the project finished," Bogatin said.

Younger students created some of the easier pieces, and the upper grades worked on the more complex pieces such as the sunflower faces.

With many duplicate pieces made to allow for breakage, Stecker chose the best ones for the finished mural.

"There weren't any names on the pieces, so nobody knows whose was used," Bogatin said. "There's school wide ownership in this project."

Some of the students turned out to be gifted in working with their hands and other students eagerly copied their ideas, Bogatin said.

"We don't often give those kids the opportunity to shine," he said.

Constructing the mosaic taught lessons that go beyond art.

"When you bring in art, there's a lot of learning. For one, it doesn't just happen, you have to keep working at, just like in writing," Bogatin said.

"We learned that if we all work together we can accomplish a big job," said Shantell Gates, 11.

Working behind the scenes was the Green Acres Parent-Teacher Club. Members raised the $3,000 cost through fundraising events.

Sharleen Santucci helped with getting the art project off the ground last year when her son Emmett attended Green Acres' Kaizen Academy for talented and gifted students. She assisted Stecker and took what she learned about ceramics to Riverview School, where she volunteers as an art instructor.

"This will be here for years, hopefully, and it's something the kids will always remember," Santucci said.