About a dozen Fulton area elementary school students used their imaginations to create brief radio scripts Saturday morning at the Churchill Museum in Fulton.
Leading the youngsters in their adventure in creativity was Liz Murphy, Churchill Museum curator.
The youth were told they would write a 1 1/2 minute brief story, including dialogue and descriptions of sounds they would like to create to go along with the story.
Students gathered in pairs and went through the museum to find a painting or photograph to use for inspiration for their story.
One pair of students was Alice Abbott Havers, daughter of Robin Havers and Elana Abbott of Fulton, and Sofia Hansert, daughter of Bernhard and Alana Hansert of Fulton.
Alice and Sofia paused in front of a painting created in 1965 by John Churchill, nephew of Sir Winston Churchill. The painting was of Churchill's funeral procession down the River Thames from Tower Pier to Festival Pier.
Alice and Sofia were not told the history of the painting, nor what it represented. Instead, they used their imaginations.
They decided for their radio show they would explore a big white ship on the shore of the river. They imagined that it was raining and would create sound effects for rain.
Then they decided they would create the sounds of their feet as they walked along the ship. The pair also thought about sounds of the boat and maybe a boat whistle.
After writing their radio script, the youngsters will return to the museum on Saturday, Dec. 11, to create and record their radio show.
Murphy told the students to create a name for their radio show, the setting, characters and dialogue. As part of the radio script, the students were told to indicate sounds to be created by enclosing that direction in brackets in their radio script.
To create sounds, students will borrow sound effects from YouTube but they also plan to create some sounds by taping paper clips on fingernails to simulate a sound like a dog walking.
"We want them to appreciate using their sense of sound without pictures to go with it," Murphy said. "We are hoping we can persuade a local radio station to broadcast the brief radio shows created by the youngsters."