Downtown is looking more festive this week as Suffolk Public Schools students use their painting skills to decorate the windows of businesses.

Playing off the theme “Musical Down Main Street,” elementary art students fanned out across downtown on Tuesday to make their musical dreams come true on the windows. Other businesses are scheduled to receive their fresh coat of paint on Thursday.

At the Plaid Turnip, the sense of camaraderie was strong among the fifth-grade art students from Hillpoint Elementary School.

“I don’t think any of us could do this without each other,” said Laura Lesley. “This has been very exciting.

“We couldn’t have done this without each other,” classmate Marley Guibas agreed. He added later: “My friends are going to be so jealous.”

Ed Lane, the Hillpoint students’ teacher, said they picked a singing animals theme to steer clear of the musicals such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and the ubiquitous “Frozen” that other classes may have been thinking of doing.

The students had to adapt that idea at the last minute when they were assigned to do the Plaid Turnip rather than another business. The eatery had requested turnips in its window art. The young artists responded by having several of the animals holding turnips.

“It’s real-world experience,” Lane said. “If they are going to continue in an art career and they’re commissioned … they need to be flexible.”

Lane also added that the event is “great publicity for the schools.”

“It’s a pleasure to be here so people can see what we really do,” Parker Forman noted. Classmate Landon Bonneville said it was good to “get out and relax and have fun.”

Over at BB&T, teacher Angie Salerno was presiding over several fourth- and fifth-grade students from Kilby Shores Elementary School who were showing off their painting skills.

“I think it’s a great experience,” Salerno said. “They get to be like professional painters for a morning.”

One of her students, Maddi Bullock, painted a strand of Christmas lights and snowflakes on BB&T’s glass doors and displayed her reindeer-painting talents earlier at Bank of America.

“I picked out which one was cute,” she said, explaining how she chose what to paint.

All of the students earned lunch after their morning of painting, and Thursday’s painters will be treated to lunch, as well. More than 65 art students in all will participate.

This is the 14th year of the program. By the end of the week, downtown visitors will be able to see the students’ handiwork at the following businesses: Suffolk News-Herald, SunTrust, BB&T, Wells Fargo Bank, Subway, The Plaid Turnip, Bank of America, Baron’s Pub, The Virginian-Pilot, Simply Susan’s Bakery, All About Virginia and the School Administration Offices.