Calling Retired Art Teachers...

     This month, I agreed to run two art clubs after school. I suspect I am insane for agreeing to this. Because I am still in grad school full time, and am trying to also tutor a student twice a week after school. And I have my practicum this term, at another school in the district, which is going to take every moment of time I have in order to complete the myriad requirements the professor has decided upon. I think I am supposed to squeeze some sleep in there, too, but that is unlikely in the next 30 days.
     When I showed up for today's art club (now differentiated on my own calendar as Art Club 1), I was overwhelmed with excited children. 30 of them, in fact. Thirty. 3-0. Because I ended up with extra jars from the luminary project in the fall, I had decided this group would do one with a spring theme, and use up the rest of the jars (and Modge Podge). So I carefully counted out 24 jars, 24 paint brushes, and measured out 2 containers of colored Modge Podge for my 24 students. Now, I haven't always been the very best at math, but my subtraction told me I was going to have 6 very unhappy, brand new to the class, what on earth are they here for today, children. I ran down to the office, brought another adult back with me, and I kept my original, they were supposed to be there today, students. And she took the remainder down to the office.
     Bless the office staff. Truly. Because they faced the parents who were angry because their teacher had mistakenly called them to tell them their kids would be in Art Club, not realizing there was a second one scheduled for the following day. And the young man who has been organizing these clubs? His car had broken down and his cell phone had died and no one knew what the plans were exactly. Turns out he is kind of a last minute planner, and that doesn't always work out for everyone else. Lesson learned - he is young, this is his first time trying to handle this, and I am sure he - and we - have all learned a great lesson out of this debacle.
     So I took my kiddos into the staff lounge and settled them in, gave them directions and jars and flowers I had punched out over Spring Break, and they made luminaries. There are several boys in this class who believe the purpose is to be done as soon as possible, and one student refused to put any flowers onto his luminary. So it is just painted green. I will have to rethink my approach, since the idea is to spend some time really creating your best work, not being the first one done. This wasn't an issue the first time around. Hmmm.
     On the other hand, I had a student who thanked me for the project "It was really fun!"

     So why did I call this post "Calling Retired Art Teachers"?  Because it is clear from the huge numbers of kids who want to be in this club, that kids are really eager to have some art in their lives. So retired art teachers, I have found a terrific volunteer position for you to pursue. Check with your local school, and see if they run after school programs. Offer to run a once a week (or more, if you desire) class on art for a group of students. Seriously. These kids need the exposure, they want to be creative, and some of the worst behaved kids enjoy these activities because they aren't based on standards, they don't have to read or add or find x. They just get to be kids playing with paint and glue and paper.

     Pictures to follow once everything has dried.

St Patrick's Day Activity

     Late post, I know.

     I had something else planned for this day, but as the day approached, and knowing how excited children are to celebrate any holiday (and how many schools are evicting holiday observances out the window in favor of super boring but important academic standards), I decided the kids should be able to do something related to this "lucky" day. So I searched online and found a relatively simple activity: Tissue paper rainbows falling into pots of gold.
     I assumed that everyone knew how the make a rainbow... the order of the colors, and whatnot. And this is what we get for assuming - even though I did specifically review the order of the colors of the rainbow with them. Oh well, it's art, it is NOT a standard, let's breathe. Maybe had this been tied to a science activity, there might have been more accuracy. But since we are talking pot of gold, accuracy might have be questioned, too.
     The kids were most impressed and excited with the boxes of pre-cut square tissue paper I had found at Lakeshore. Best purchase ever, since I really didn't want to cut those squares up myself! Having already discussed to application of glue with this group, that also was easy breezy.
     I heard a LOT about Minecraft from the boys during this project. Not having a boy at home myself, nor an avid player of the game, I have nevertheless heard about it from friends and their children, so I have a rough idea about the game. The boys really wanted to do some kind of Minecraft activity with these square tissue paper pieces. Really, really, really.
     I had punched out many, many, many circles of yellow paper (gold), and limited the kids at the start to three pieces. Once I knew what I had leftover, I handed them out to the students and they were so excited. Wish it had been real gold instead, although with the reaction I received, it just as well may have been!
     The result was a fun activity, fairly straightforward, and we ended with a funny read aloud from a pop-up book about a green frog. (I surprisingly have no books in my extensive classroom library for this holiday. Oh Goody! More book shopping!) They loved the pop-up aspect of the book, and I was able to retain hold on the book so the pop-up elements remained viable.

Someday, someone needs to explain to me regardless of what I do to edit these pictures, Blogger likes to change the direction they are facing. It really makes me nuts!

Table full of artwork, waiting to dry.



Severeal students liked the idea of crunpling up the tissue into small balls and adding it onto their pot. Great dimensionality!

You end up with blurry pictures when you are handing out the artwork at the end of the period and kids are trying to take it while you are trying to record their work simulatenously. But I loved how this student used the pieces.

This is almost exactly like mine. I think this student was the one who took my example and copied it, adding extra "gold".

This student decided to take an extra pot from my pile and make it more colorful.

This was that Minecraft influence I was talking about.

Guess the rainbow didn't quite fit in the sky. And yes, I know, now it looks like an octopus.

Another project that Blogger carefully turned around to look like an octopus.

I am going to guess this student only likes the University of Oregon Ducks, based on his color choices.

Rainbows are hard to get in the right order.

Love how this one "diffused" the light of the gold with extra tissue.

I know which student this came from, so the smiley face in gold is not surprising. One of the most cheerful kids I have ever met.

Thanks for stopping by...