BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — At Leisure Park Elementary in Broken Arrow, fifth graders are leaving behind more than memories; they’re leaving a piece of themselves on the fence line.
The school’s fifth-grade class has created self-portrait fence posts, a tradition that began with the class of 2022 and has continued through the class of 2026, with each year’s posts added down the fence line.
Art teacher Elizabeth Lewis said students look forward to the project from the moment they start the school year.
“It’s one of my most asked questions when they start fifth grade: are we going to do it? They put their personality into it, they draw, sketch, paint… and then we get to put them up on the fence,” Lewis said.
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Lewis said some students are nervous at first, but the excitement builds quickly once the painting begins.
“They’re all wondering when they’re going to see them out there. As soon as we had them done, they wanted them up,” Lewis said.
For fifth grader Emily Cooley, the artwork carries meaning beyond the canvas.
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“It was so fun… I was excited to do this when we got into fifth grade,” Cooley said.
For Emily, the fence post will serve as a lasting marker of her time at Leisure Park.
“And when I come back, I’ll get to walk by and see my fence post here,” Cooley said.
Lewis said the tradition has also created connections across grade levels, with younger students searching the fence for posts made by their older siblings.
“The younger grades are like, ‘my sister did one of those, my brother did one.’ They love it,” Lewis said.
As each post is drilled into the fence line, the display grows, a colorful, ever-expanding reminder of the students who passed through Leisure Park’s halls.
“It’ll bring back a lot of memories,” Cooley said.
This year’s project was made possible through donations from Spectrum Paint and Monty Anderson Enterprises.
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