Memorial day related crafts and actvtivies

For the after school program this week the theme is Memorial day.

For the after and before school program we use a lot of coloring sheets. I am not a huge fan of coloring sheets but I try to find ways to creatively use them. So on Monday we made Memorial day wreaths using black construction paper, the coloring sheets we had and some tissue paper.

Tuesday morning I was sitting and drawing with one of the kids who was using a drawing book on "How to Draw Famous Cartoon Characters"  I had a coloring sheet that one student had started a mustache on this little boy who is suppose to be sitting and watching a parade. A great kid inspired tangent ensued we laughed hard at this.

Tuesday after noon we read "The Wall" by Eve Bunting  we talked about the wall be a carved and recessed wall and that people make rubbings of the names on it. Then we made texture rubbings of our own and us wooden puzzle pieces for letters and found some textures on our supply boxes and outdoors and made rubbings with crayons.

Tomorrow  we will make patriotic jewelery and hair falls with yarn and pony beads in colors Red, White and Blue.

Drawing the kids portraits

May 18, 2011

So I was responding to a challenge from one of the kids last week.  One of the kindergartener’s in the morning program draws really detailed figures. Some of the other kids were laughing at her drawings. I said “I think she draws really well.” “Yah! she draws better then you!” was the reply I got. “That’s it, sit down I am drawing you.” I said. I started drawing the kid’s portraits. Other kids wanted their portrait drawn. They are not perfect drawings. It is very hard to draw kids. They really can’t hold still for long. The kid’s eyes are always off because they start looking at me, then laugh because I am staring at them then, they try to watch me draw.

The first batch was also drawn with an ink pen with no chance to erase. One of my staff members likened those to police crime sketches.

It has been great practice for me. The second day I used pencil and started by drawing some of the kids stuffed animals in colored pencil. I then drew the kids The images below are from day two.      

 

 

Easter projects

 Back when I was making Grape vines wreaths in late fall. I bent one into form and it looked like an Egg. So I have been saving that one for Easter/Spring. I Rochester Spring comes late and snow storms are still present though much of MARCH So I do not feel to bad about not getting to this sooner.

I found these little plastic eggs 24 in a bag at the Mr.Dollar and got a few bags.The kids on Friday got to have Easter egg hunts and then we painted the plastic eggs with acrylic paints. Instead of Easter basket we made Easter cups. We decorated paper cups with stickers and kids wrote their name on them with  Sharpie markers put wood shaved "grass" in the bottom of the cups. I did not get pictures of those yet but will later.

I also found this great tree form at Target for only 2.50. I figured it could have a lot of uses and it has so far like an earring display holder/jewelry holder but it also makes a great Easter egg tree.

The funny thing is I really do not even celebrate Easter abut I do celebrate the coming of spring  and these bright little eggies really inspired me.... I also LOVE jelly beans

Spring collbartive painting

 My wonderful friend Kat works at a sign shop and gives me and some other art teachers she knows scraps of vinyl adhesive or scrap or sign plastic that are too small for the printer. Just all kinds of wonderful odds and ends. This one piece of large plastic she gave us reminded me of the painting canvas. So I got out the acrylic craft paints, the plastic shopping bags I cut open for smocks, some brushes and let the kids have at it. My rules for making collaborative art works go well with kids are. No one can cover up some one else work and the images should go well together. Each child should think of what the child before them did and maybe repeat some things used in one place elsewhere.I have done many different collaborative mural projects. I love to see what happens and find it freeing to let kids work at a larger scale.

Mardi Gras

 So I was looking for a theme for my before and  after school program kids for this week . At first I thought St. Patrick's days but then I look at my calender again and  realized. Mardi Gras comes first! So all this week I gave the kids printed Mardi Gras themed coloring sheets and puzzles. We made  party hats from construction paper. I found some suggestions on making Mardi Gras "Floats" from  cardboard boxes and covered them with construction paper. We used up my old party streamers, pom-poms and confetti to decorate.I sent out a notes to parents today that children can bring in stuffed animals on Monday to ride on the floats. We made construction paper masks yesterday and the kids will wear them while we "parade" around the school.

Chiense New Year

 I am not Chinese and a number of my students do not celebrate Chinese New Year.  I think it is important to discuss holidays that go under recognized in the united states. I also find many of the holidays that we normally do celebrate to be so far removed from were they originally came from that most people do not know where they originate from or why we celebrate them.I like to know these things.I enjoy learning about holidays. So I planned some activities for last week that revolved around Chinese New Year.This was for my before and after school program so we kept it short and sweet.

We made Chinese lanterns one day very similar to the ones we made for Halloween but all red now instead of orange.

We traced the template I used to make artist trading card sleeves to make lucky money envelopes and then we stamped them with rubber stamps on the outside.

I had done Chinese new years activities with me preschool students years before and  I remember how much they had loved this template on the crayola page for making their own parade puppet dragons.

The culminating event was a dragon parade. I still had the one I had made from years before. So I fixed him up a little I gave him some repairs (he is made out of paper after all) and I gave he face a fresh coat of paint. I reattached the body to the paper bag head and then spread him out on the cafe tables in the morning for the kids to add their own decoration to. We cut foam sheets into scales and added gold glitter glue to give it some sparkle. we added more strings to his side to "hide" the kids.We paraded around the school hallways in the morning wishing everyone a  "Happy Chinese New year!"
 

Making paper beads a brief tutorial.

 These are a great project to do with kids and  they can be made smaller and more detailed for adult hands.

You will need: Scissors, glue old magazines ok to cut up, or other colorful paper, straws or toothpicks to wrap paper around, Elmers or other white bottled glue, Modge Podge or gloss medium varnish String to string beads when finished and other beads to combine them with.



Step 1 Cut a paper triangle from a magazine page or fold in half once vertical and cut two at a time. You can get four to six triangles from one page.

Step 2 Hold your straw or toothpick with one hand the paper triangle in the other. Put a small line of glue above the straw and roll the paper around it  starting form the wide base end wrapping more narrow end around it.roll until glue is a wrapped up the add more glue.Continue wrapping until all of paper as wrapped. You may need one more small drop of white glue at the tip of the paper to secure the end in place.

Step 3 allow to dry. So that beads are upright so as not to stick to anything. If you are doing this with a group of kids be sure to label the straw or toothpicks with a flag of tape and a sharpie fine point marker.

Step 4 When beads have dried ad glitter or paper confetti if you like and coat with Mod Podge to protect the paper bead and give it some shine.

Beutiful Beads

 When I was a young teenager I had a friend who had a lot of jewelry. I wanted lots of jewelry too. I started making my own jewelery. Lots of beads...... I made my own from polymer clay and paper. I took jewelry classes and learned to work with metal. The non precious materials were usually my favorite. I drilled holes in acorns. I used bolts and fishing lores, gi joe heads and barbies things. All kind of stuff. I still do this.

 I also  need to clear things out once in awhile this boxes and boxes of crafting supplies. I have collected these bobbles for awhile now and was thrilled to watch a group of children pick through my treasures the other day during the morning program I lead. I gave kindergartners through fifth graders three boxes of beads and bobbles,some beading elastic, ribbon and pipe cleaners.

 I brought a blanket to put down on the table. On of my past mentors showed my this trick. we kids drop beads and they hit the table they will stay within the blanket. Other wise they bounce off the table and end up all over the floor.

This one girl is part Native American and recently was learning about Native American tribes in schools. She says the most insightful things and is very creative. She choose the gold craft coins,the tribal  print beads and some polymer clay beads and made this great necklace.She wanted the necklace to reflect her cultural background.

Other kids used letter beads and bells and made necklaces with them. One girl made a choker from safety pins and beads

One girl even made her school art teacher a gift, a pipe cleaner with beads ans a mini roll of tape that she found in my treasure box she said "You never know when the art teacher might need tape".

Today they thought the mini golf tokens were "real gold".
I love to here kids talk about their process as they create. It warms my heart....

Texture Rubbings

All you need for a texture rubbing is a textured object , some copy paper and, some crayons.We used the fishnet style wrappers from large Asian pears the other day.We combined those with clay texture plates.
Just put the texture plate under the copy paper then rub with a crayon.It helps to have one handhold the plate in place while the other uses the crayon for the rubbing. When you have finished the rubbing you can add watercolor washes in between.
Pictures are on my phone I will upload them later.

Cupcake jewelry made by kids

So I was wearing my cupcake jewelry to work and the kids would see it. Now, I know I am selling my products for money. Many of the kids wanted to by it from me. I felt weird asking my kids for money. So instead I asked my supervisor for some polymer clay and I showed the kids how I make cupcake jewelry.


They really enjoyed it.Some made striped beads, some made small animals.

I lugged my toaster oven back and forth each day and brought in my tools and shared my jewelry making supplies.
So what? I did not make money. For the kids I made memories and they were so proud of there work.