DOWNSIZING DEVELOPMENT : MINIATURE VILLAGE RISES AT LOCAL NURSERY SCHOOL.Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer It has a corner market, a post office, an auto repair shop and a nursery, but, as one might deduce de·duce tr.v. de·duced, de·duc·ing, de·duc·es 1. To reach (a conclusion) by reasoning. 2. To infer from a general principle; reason deductively: from a castle and 4-1/2-foot-high doorways, this is no ordinary village's Main Street. The operators of Sunshine Child Care & Learning Center call it Kid City, a preschooler-size play area meant to spark young imaginations as they pretend to be grocers, mail carriers, auto mechanics An auto mechanic or motor mechanic in Australian English is a mechanic who specialises in automobile maintenance, repair, and sometimes modification. A mechanic may be knowledgeable in working on all parts of a variety of car makes or may specialize either in a specific area or royalty. ``It was something we did to improve the school,'' said Sunshine director Melissa Jenkins. ``It gives the children the opportunity to role-play and express their creativity in different ways.'' Stuart Chiavassa, who owns a Canyon Country custom cabinet-making business, built the wooden playroom with help from a bookkeeper friend. Valencia artist Cindi Rowley painted the structures, substituting sponges and cheesecloth cheese·cloth n. A coarse, loosely woven cotton gauze, originally used for wrapping cheese. cheesecloth Noun a light, loosely woven cotton cloth Noun 1. for paintbrushes paintbrushes see castilleja. to give the castle a speckled-granite look and the garage a simulated brick facade. ``I wanted to give it character,'' Rowley said. Chiavassa used his 3-1/2-year-old son, Grant, as creative consultant on types of buildings, and some of the boy's ideas were incorporated into the design. ``The only thing missing is the fire station. He suggested a prison, too,'' the cabinetmaker said. The kid in the British-born cabinetmaker surfaced as he built the market's produce shelves, the post office's letter slot and mail-sorting cubbyholes, and especially the castle with its portcullis-style gate. ``I said, Wow, I want to play in this,'' he joked. Jenkins said the 2-year-olds to kindergartners who attend Sunshine will be thrilled with the miniature village. Rowley used bright hues of red and slate blue slate blue n. A grayish blue to dark bluish gray. slate  -blue adj. for the post office, green and purple for the market. She still has to paint a teddy bear and alphabet alphabet [Gr. alpha-beta, like Eng. ABC], system of writing, theoretically having a one-for-one relation between character (or letter) and phoneme (see phonetics). Few alphabets have achieved the ideal exactness. building blocks inside the nursery, along with carrots, peas and radishes on the market's walls. A painted ivy vine twists up the castle wall, and gold stars decorate the interior. The Acme (company, jargon) ACME - /ak'mee/ 1. A Company that Makes Everything. The canonical imaginary business. Possibly also derived from the word "acme" meaning "highest point". 2. A program for MS-DOS. Tires logo painted on the wall of the auto repair shop is an allusion al·lu·sion n. 1. The act of alluding; indirect reference: Without naming names, the candidate criticized the national leaders by allusion. 2. to ``Looney Tunes,'' Rowley added. The project has taken about two weeks to plan, build and paint. Even Grant, who soon will attend Sunshine, got into the act. ``He actually helped me shoot some nails. I'd hold the gun and he pulled the trigger,'' Chiavassa said. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color) Artist Cindi Rowley paints a nursery school' s Kid City while Harrison Quinlan and Madeline Sage are among children visiting its market. Hans Gutknecht/Daily News |
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