Snowflake Resist - Our First Meeting of the Term

     Finally, we were able to begin Art Club today! Hooray! With a new group of 22 students, mostly new faces, it was quite delightful.

     I introduced myself, gave students a general idea of what to expect, established the "no poking" rule, and then we jumped right into the project. Students used white crayons on watercolor paper to draw snowflakes.  ("What do we know about snowflakes?" "They are made of snow!" "They melt quickly!" "Some look like stars!" and finally, the answer I was after, "They are different shapes!") I asked students to cover their sheets with snowflakes, using the light to catch the waxy shine of the drawn flakes to see what they had done so far. They quietly worked, holding up their papers to examine their work, comparing it with their neighbors, and bringing it back to the table to add more.

     I had made a "spray box"so that I could spray blue and purple watercolor over the papers without it making a mess everywhere else. The kids made a line (!) and waited for me to spray their papers, returned to their places with foam brushes, and began covering the paper with the watercolor. I also brought some spray bottles with water, so that students wouldn't use too much water on their own, drowning their work. (See, I learned from the last time we used watercolors.) 

     Suddenly, it seemed I was in the desert, with parched voices calling out, "Water! I need water!" They laughed when I asked if we were in a desert, and they were so good natured as I reminded them that I could only help 1 (or 2) of them at a time. It seems I can use 2 spray bottles on two art pieces at once! Completed papers began to decorate the back table and students lined up to wash their hands, which had become a lovely shade of purplish blue, matching mine. They also stacked the paint brushes by the sink, and returned the crayons into a baggie. Students talked and laughed about their violet fingers, and scrubbed with baby wipes, and finally it was the squirt of hand sanitizer that seemed to help eliminate most of the color.

     Students cleaned up quickly, and I was able to take pictures of each student's artwork as I handed it back. Students loved that some of their work had turned a funny hue of pink... like those last light rays in the night sky. We were the first to head outside, meet parents, and get everyone safely home.

     Returning back to the lounge, I found it easy to clean up the room, rinse out the brushes, and pack to go home. Hopefully, parents won't be too unhappy about their children's blue hands, and will enjoy their beautiful artwork. If it is any consolation, my hands still look like I was squishing blackberries between my fingers!

     I am excited to see them again next week! We will be making Valentine's Day cards. In the meantime, please chill out with today's work...

OK, this was mine - the "demo" piece.

Winter Term of Art Club

     Looking forward to returning to my Art Club kids. I spent some time this morning organizing some of the projects I am planning for the term. (No hints!)  I was told I had about 40 students want to sign up for the class, but the folks in charge limited it to just 22. Phew! I use 3 large tables, and that means 7 kids per table and 8 at the third table. And I won't have to poach the chairs from the PSO room every Monday.
     There are so many Mondays off, either due to holidays or due to staff days that I won't see my kiddos too often this term. In fact, we won't start until February. I don't know who I have in the club this term, but I am hoping to see some returning faces... my God-daughter and her friends, the funny kindergartners, the quiet artists... it will be a fun term.
     Most of the projects are more on the crafty end of things, but I want to try to incorporate more artists or specific artistic styles into the club. Not to make it like Art Literacy, but to have these kids see different works of art, different styles of art design, and different mediums. On the other hand, it seems like the students really enjoy the basic crafts.
     One challenge I have set for myself this term is the art of glue application. Not with glue sticks, but using actual white glue. I am thinking about using a small pool in a paper plate and having students use a q-tip to apply the glue onto the item. We will have to see.
     Anyway, looking forward to seeing what they do this term!  See you next month!

Happy Holidays, Art Clubbers!

The principal came in this week when I was working with my Homework Club (different group of kids, different day) and said that there would be no Art Club next week. Bummer! So my last planned project won't happen after all. Considering that next week also happens to be finals week in college, I'm not crying too hard.

The next series of Art Clubs won't start until close to the end of January, and with all of the Mondays off... it may a short series. I have all new ideas for projects, so when my promised smaller group of kids shows up, we will be ready to start up right away. Yay!

In the meantime, Happy Holiday wishes to everyone. Wishing you a safe, warm, and family-focused holiday season. And thanks, so very much, for your support. It is appreciated more than you will ever realize.

See you next year!

Little Turkeys Making Little Flocks of Little Turkeys!

Last time, the kids painted their luminaries. I took them home, repainted them (in some cases more than once), and then twisted and added the little blue glittery pipe cleaners and snowflake washi tape around the neck of each of the jars. I brought them back to school fully dry, decorated, and with a little tealight in the bottom.  The kids were so excited to see them and to be able to take them home!

Table Group 1

I love how this student put the house at the bottom so then the snowflake could fall...

Table Group 2

 

I like how this one put the house at the bottom and then overlapped the snowflakes!

Table Group 3

And this student also put the house at the bottom and then had a ring of snowflakes all around the jar!

So this past week was the Monday before Thanksgiving. So, the theme was of course, TURKEYS!

I had two different projects planned. Kids could make turkey place cards (4) and then they could each make a turkey coffee filter magnet.

Model minus the name written on the place card.

The place cards required students to take 4 different sized half scalloped circles and glue them onto each other for the feathers. Then they took a lopsided heart, turned it upside down, and stuck that to the front of the feathers. Add a couple of googly eyes, and then they stick them onto the top of a place card, and add a name with a sharpie. They could do this 4 times.

Then I had students who were done, work with me to use paint daubers to add color onto the folded over coffee filter, and then add a circle for the turkey face, and use a Popsicle stick with a magnet already glued onto it, on the back of the filter.

Yes, this IS my model! The turkey face couldn't have been made any more complicated than this. Trust me.

If I had not limited kids to four place cards, then they might have made the four I asked them to. Yes, you read that right. I told them they could make four, one for everyone in their families, and most of them made less than four.

Because kids were finishing faster with their place cards and not making the number assigned, they were all crowding around me, poking me, whining "I'm done! I want to make the magnet!"

AAAAARGH!

We got the projects done. I had no time for photos, since it was all I could do to get kids to make everything and clean up. Well, it was all I could do to get the kids to make some of the projects. Cleaning up still seems to be beyond their capabilities. Which is why I used a minimum of glue and the googly eyes were already adhesive.

As was the magnet tape I used. Note to self - buy and adhere the magnet tape in enough time to flatten it out. Or use magnets.

And I had pre-punched every single one of the circles, cut them in half, and arranged them into carefully counted piles so that each student would have enough supplies. So if you consider the math here: 4 half circles of different sizes x 4 place cards x 26 students + extra... and then divide the number of circles in half since we used half circles... Yeah, I must have punched about 250 circles and cut them all in half.  Yes, these are the things I do at night while watching TV. My husband is thankfully very forgiving.

It was another art class of mayhem, but at the end of the period, the kids got to take home their luminaries and their place cards and their magnets.

I received the most lovely thank you from one parent, who took pictures of the unlit and lit up luminary and posted it on Facebook. I printed that page for my own records and as a reminder.

That's what makes it all worth it. The smiles on the kid's faces and the thanks from their parents.

Luminaries

As it turns out, this project is more age appropriate for 3-5 grade, and younger students who have the ability to listen and follow directions, like my awesome God-daughter and her friends.

That is lesson 1.

Lesson 2 is not to underestimate the thoughtful parents who send in extra (and sometimes entire bagfuls) of extra jars. Just in case someone forgot. Which they always do. I ended up with extra jars. Thanks, Thoughtful Moms!

Lesson 3 is that the time when you encourage students to use lots of paint, to really glop it on, they will use it as sparingly as possible.

Lesson 4 is to use small jars for the students you know won't take you seriously when you tell them repeatedly to cover the entire jar with paint. I sent one kiddo back to keep working 5 separate times. The jar still isn't covered.

So today's project was to create a winter themed luminary. Students brought in glass jars, and we used a Modge Podge mixture (with a little blue paint and glitter) to adhere snowflakes and paint the outside of the jar. I used my die cutting machine to cut out about 224 different snowflakes and another 28 house/tree scenes from white paper. I then sorted all of those little snowflakes into sets and put them into little baggies for each student to alleviate the usual "she got a different one than I got!" complaints.

Using foam brushes, they apply the "paint" to the jar, add the paper piece, and go over it again with more "paint". And then they repeat, until they have covered the jar and theoretically used all of their snowflakes.

I demonstrated how to do this in front of all of them, I swear.

Oh well. The good news is that they are drying in the teacher's lounge for a few days, and then I can go back and "touch them up" a bit. Once they are done, I will take some pictures and post them.

Next week, we will be starting the class with a little discussion about listening, and also about cleaning up. I had to throw away all of the used paper towels because the kids would wash their hands, dry them, and then leave the crumpled up towels on the counter. I'm not even sure where that idea came from.

Lessons learned for the future. Next week, Thanksgiving themes...

This is my model luminary. I made the kids' paint a little lighter, since this came out really blue.

Fall Collage

We actually did this project on the fourth of November, but I was pretty focused on some assignments for the classes I am taking at the time, and so I am just now posting.

Since our autumn seemed to last longer than usual for those of us in the Pacific Northwest, I decided to take advantage of it. I also decided to try and use some of the various foam pieces I have had in my craft room from when my daughter was younger. And the project I had originally envisioned involved too many instructions. Try to imagine 26 kids with a piece of egg carton, googly eyes, glue, felt pieces, and a pipe cleaner... and you too, would decide upon a different project. And there was the fact that my voice was almost gone.

So I designed an image on blue construction paper (for the sky), and drew a tree and branch with brown crayon. I cut out a grey squirrel for every student, and collected a real leaf from my backyard, flattened and dried it, and then put together assorted foam and paper leaves, a paper acorn, and an owl sticker. Some of the foam pieces were adhesive, and some were not. I used basic white glue as well.

I set up a baggie for every student with all of the same basic items. I set up little bins of brown crayons. I set up paper plates with a pool of glue for each table.

We talked about what a collage was - a group of related items. I gave them free rein on design, that my model was only an idea.

Other than the lack of ability to use a pool of white glue (glue sticks wouldn't give enough adhesion), the projects came out pretty well. Mostly they copied my idea, and then just plastered their paper with all of the leaves. Even though I had told them that I had included real leaves from my backyard, they were astounded to see them. This is our last "fall" themed project. Considering that I came up with it on the spur of the moment, it wasn't too bad.

It is interesting to think about the things you take for granted that kids know how to do. When I was a kid (and yes, that was still when we had paste pots that some kids ate, and rubber cement we all liked to let dry on our hands and then peel off to creep out our friends), we all had white glue bottles. We knew you didn't glop it all over your item, even though it would dry clear. So when I told the kids they could dip a finger into the pool and put some on the back of the item to be glued, they ignored me and instead dipped the entire item (submerged is  probably more appropriate a description) into the pool of glue. I mean, it worked, but it was messy. Is it always like this? Am I just being selective about my own memories? I will admit it is possible.

I know that students need explicit instruction, that's a basic given. I have been assuming that students are used to using these art supplies, but the truth is, with teachers being pressured to use their time in the classroom to the best of their abilities, maybe it's possible that they aren't getting the explicit instruction in art tools... and that's where I come in. So, I am trying to restructure my lessons to include that demonstration for students that is so integral for them to understand the how, as well as the explanations of the what.

Next time - hopefully, if students all bring glass jars (and after multiple reminders!) - we start working on our first winter project - luminaries. They will go home the week of Thanksgiving, but they need cure time. Plus I will be dressing them up a little.  the week of Thanksgiving, we will make turkey magnets and place cards... maybe a little out of order season-wise.

This is entire club's work as it dries.

Sugar Skull masks

     Since it's almost Halloween, I really wanted to do something that was both Halloween-related and yet not, since so many districts have moved towards "Harvest" themes. I settled on the idea of making some kind of sugar skull mask, and after many iterations, I eventually elected this one. We talked in class about Dia de los Muertos ("Hey, that's Spanish!") and that it is a holiday celebrated in Mexico after Halloween to celebrate family members who have died. I mentioned that the skulls were made out of sugar because it wasn't about being scary. I forgot to mention (and I read this somewhere, it is not original to me) that sugar skulls are sweet like life, but skulls to reflect death. I think that comparison may well have gone right over this groups' heads! But since so many kids in this school have Mexican friends or family, it seemed appropriate.

     I took a sugar skull stencil and oversprayed it with yellow glimmer mist. Then I cut each of them out into a 6" circle. I enlisted my husband and his drill in order to get the eye holes just right. (I don't recommend this exactly... turns out the regular drill you have at home isn't quite delicate enough to cut perfect circles through an inch of paper and paper plates.) Fortunately, the kids didn't care about that.

     I also sprayed glow in the dark fabric paint onto each of the paper plates, in the hopes that the outer edges would give off a glow.  I also added some glitter glue in yellow, pink, and green to give them a little more "sugar" effect and dimension. Finally, I prepped the paper plates by using poster glue dots to adhere the popsicle sticks to the back of the paper plates.

     Each table was given a set of colored pencils ("extreme colors"), two packs of neon crayons, and two sets of flourescent highlighters.  We talked about how we were using bright colors ("happy colors", two of my buddies called them), because the purpose was not to make scary skulls, but spectacular, vivid skulls. Naturally, one of the kindergarteners asked where the brown was, just seconds later.

     The trickiest part of this project (yes, it came as a surprise to me as well) was applying a glue stick to the back of the mask and adhering it to the paper plate. We had discussed how we wanted to match up the eye holes, so that wasn't the issue. It was the actual use of the highly technical glue stick. Here is a partial listing of some the issues I faced today:

• twisting off the cap
• twisting up the glue
• applying the glue to paper
• twisting the glue down so that the cap fits on
• finding the cap
• putting the cap onto the top of the stick
• not gluing your friend's arm

     Evidently, the Common Core State Standards missed this one. I always figured it was pretty obvious how to use these things, but I have now learned that whenever I have a classroom again, I will explicitly teach the use of the glue stick. I will also teach the students how to dispose of a glue stick that no longer contains any "stick" or "glue".

     Once we finished the masks, I gave them some printed out sugar skull coloring pages (thanks to various sites on the internet and an e-book I bought: Thaneeya McArdle's Sugar Skulls) and I traded out the various neon colors for regular colored pencils, so that we would have all colors to work with.

     As you will see from the following pictures, the kids did an amazing job of coloring their masks. I am not even posting my own model (which I did late last night, and I have to admit, it was pretty lame) because they outperformed me so impressively. Overall, I am thrilled at their work today.

     Next week, I think we will be making squirrels out of egg cartons. Or maybe I will go with something easier. Something, I suspect, that does not involve glue sticks.

This student mentioned that her dad is from Mexico, so she is familiar with these skulls.

Love all of the bright colors!

The three amigos?

Love the usage of color to really brighten them up!

Amazing how everyone had a slightly different take on coloring these in.

Group photo!

They were all so proud of their work. I love it!