First-grader Jenna Vore concentrated as she daubed eyes with white paint onto her Woodsey the Owl poster.
"I'm good at painting, but I need my professional paints to be really good," she said.
She and other participants in Bush Elementary's after-school BAC PAC program were hard at work on their entries to the National Garden Clubs poster contest. Members of the Fulton Garden Club visit the program regularly to teach students about the outdoors.
"I want students to learn to be able to enjoy the outdoors," garden club member Linda Houston said. "It's something I grew up doing through Girl Scouts and I think it's more important now than it was when I was a girl."
She added conservation is important for children to learn about, as they grow up to inherit a world with its natural resources stretched thin.
For this activity, children heard the story of Smokey the Bear. They then got to work making posters. Children chose between Smokey and his famous "Only you can prevent wild fires" slogan, and Woodsy the Owl, who says "Lend a hand, care for the land."
"I'm doing Smokey because you can put fire in the picture," Sawyer Gillian said.
Last year, a Bush Elementary student's poster placed at the national level. Students' posters are first judged locally, then - if they place high enough - regionally, statewide and nationally.
Houston and fellow garden club member Gloria Smith also lead BAC PAC participants in activities like nature walks, planting bulbs and creating bird feeders. Next month, a naturalist with the Missouri Department of Conservation will visit with live animals for children to meet.
Some of the students said they've learned from the garden club lessons.
"I learned how to plant a seed," third grader Austin Cote said. "There's a specific way to do it."
Vore wanted people who saw her poster to take home a lesson.
"They should learn to pick up trash and keep the world healthy," she said.