Martha Brooks, center, helps students put together their 3D ‘whimsies.’

NASHUA – In Megan Staples’ art classroom at Dr. Crisp Elementary School, students worked, heads down, absorbed in the task at hand. Late morning sunlight streamed through the windows on a hot sunny day, only weeks from summer vacation, a time when the students are usually climbing over one another in anticipation of the school-free months ahead.

On Thursday, however, the fifth-graders were mostly quiet, with only the occasional comment about how something was coming along or a request for teacher assistance.

The class was Zentangling.

Aside from being a word which sounds made up, the Zentangle method is an “easy-to-learn, relaxing and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns,” according to https://zentangle.com.

The patterns, or tangles, are created with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs drawn on tiles.

“It’s basically meditative and therapeutic doodling,” said Martha Brooks, a visiting artist at Dr. Crisp and a certified Zentangle teacher.

Doodling has been around for centuries, of course, but the Zentangle method is just that- a method, with a set way to complete it.

However, there is no wrong way to Zentangle and definitely no wrong way to make art when Brooks is in the room.

“There are no mistakes,” she told a student who had said his tile looked awful. “You’ve just made a creative difference … everything you’ve done, you were meant to do.”

The class used their Zentangle tiles to create three-dimensional shapes Brooks has coined “whimsies.”

“They’re all gorgeous,” she said. “Even for the kids who struggle with spatial awareness, I haven’t seen even one that hasn’t been beautiful.”

Despite expressing frustration early on in the process, the students became visibly proud of their work, showing Brooks each individual tile. Some have even started Zentangling on their own and teaching younger siblings.

The whole initiative at Dr. Crisp, which, it has already been determined will be a yearly event, was brought forward by Principal Cherie Fulton.

Fulton knew Brooks from the 21 years the latter woman spent working in the Nashua School District. She asked her to join them for a few weeks to teach the Zentangle Method.

She wanted, Brooks recalled, to “give her fifth-graders a present to take with them as they move into the world” to help manage the anxieties of moving to middle school.

This mission seems to have paid off, as one boy even remarked that he wished he could perform Zentangle whenever he wanted, not just at school.

Fulton plans to send the students home with workbooks for use during th summer so they can do just that.

“The kids love it – you can see how proud they are,” Staples added, calling the method a tool for the students’ toolboxes.

Each child made a whimsy to put on display and a smaller one to take home.

“They’re all artists,” Brooks said.

Hannah LaClaire can be reached at 594-1243 or hlaclaire@nashuatelegraph.com.