AMHERST — An illustrated strip of her life story shows her cats, the cello she practices, and an imaginative dragon, but commences with a depiction of woods.

“I really like nature and being outside, so that’s why it starts with trees,” says Crocker Farm School fifth grader Juniper Westgate, who like all students at the school is in the midst of creating a life narrative that will become part of a schoolwide memory pole. “This is fun because I like drawing things that I like.”

And before she’s done making the strip, Juniper will be adding pictures of board games and card games. “Give me a game, and I’ll play it,” she explains.

Being born on Earth, fifth grader Ariela Cannon Collins has drawn a globe, as well as the house she once lived in and her preschool, on her two-inch wide strip.

“Two times a week, that was fun,” Ariela said of what she calls “preschool school,” which happened before she attended The Common School, then moved to a new house and finally arrived at Crocker Farm. “And I put Ariela in purple letters, because that’s my favorite color,” she said.

Using a range of strips, cut out from recycled paper bags, and assorted acrylic markers, Sharpies, colored pencils and Crayons, the students are capturing their life moments, whether it be positive memories, like one student whose grandmother took her to visit the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. or hardships, like another student being stung by a bee, and, for almost all students, the challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic.

The memory pole project is a collaboration between Waleska Santiago-Centeno, the school librarian, and Cindy Ferrer, the art teacher, to get students to recount stories about themselves, their families, the community and the school. It is inspired by the Native American studies this fall, drawing from both the Indigenous totem poles in the pacific Northwest of the United States, and the formal greeting, or mihi, of the Maori people of New Zealand, who use pepeha as a traditional introduction telling a story about a person’s connections to the people and places important to them

Each of the hundreds of strips created will then be attached to a pole, rising about 20 feet, that supports the high ceilings in the library. Santiago-Centeno said she and Ferrer will laminate each piece of art produced by the students.

Fifth grader Gaby Dirzanskyte Mamani’s strip includes an American flag, representing being born in the United States and growing up in Florida, and will include airplanes and model planes, and, with a mother from Lithuania, reflections on the wonderful visits there.

“Portraying different stages of my life through art is the goal,” Gaby said.

Fifth grader Khaya Vennell’s strip shows she was born in Holyoke Hospital, is an American and Puerto Rican as represented by the flags showing her heritage, as well as the violin she plays. On fifth grader Helen Bryson’s strip, it shows her being born in Singapore, moving to California as a toddler and then coming to Amherst, where she has a dog.

“I will put as much as I can on here,” Helen said.

Greta Nelson’s strip shows her home, becoming part of the Crocker Farm community and the friends made at the school. Born in Washington state, Ramona Sirois drew outlines of both that state and Massachusetts, and a likeness of one of her two cats, who are named Pickerel and Perch.

“It’s really fun and I really like showing parts of my life,” Ramona said, adding that she thought of big things in life she should draw.

The memory pole will also serve as a time capsule, as it remains in place over the years the younger students will be able to reflect on what they drew.

“I want them to feel connected to the pole,” Santiago-Centeno said.

An unveiling of the finished work will take place in March during a community event that will bring together families and be an opportunity for students to talk about the themes they included.

“It’s exciting because the pole is the center of the library, and their stories will also be in the center of the library” Santiago-Centeno said.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.