More typeface/career lesson images

             I am trying to get more of these posted- here are several with the student's grades ;).

Making Marionettes!!

 Ah! My marionette making enrichment class is heaven!! It is so exciting to be with this group of kids after school! It is the first after school session I have done so far this year and I greatly missed it.

I had been thinking about building marionettes since last year. It fascinates me to combine the building, simple machines, painting and theater all together in one project. I decided to base our marionette making off an ancient folk tale from India- I can never find the exact title but it is about Never Rushing to Judgement and involves a mongoose and a snake. The children will eventually put on a marionette show enacting the folk tale. In the meantime I will teach them as much as I can about the culture of India while we are making.

After we read the folk tale together they all chose what character they wanted to create- either the wife, husband, mongoose or snake. I have a great resource book titled "Art From Many Hands" which had an illustration of how to build a marionette. It gave me the idea to sketch out instructions on how to put the marionettes together. I gave them each a "kit" and the instructions and let them work through it. Of course I walked around and helped but for the most part they did it on their own! Below is the wife or husband instructions....

 

These are the mongoose instructions

          The top pictures in this post are pictures of some of the kiddos making a snake character.

The following pictures are the husbands and wives. Can you believe the kids nailed them together and screwed in eye hooks on their own?! Yippee!

 This is what one table in my room looked like AFTER the first marionette session.......took 2 hours to clean up but still sooooooo worth it!!! ;)

During week 2 we began working on the marionette clothes. We studied traditional Indian designs and the students designed fabric using geometric patterns, flora and fauna and stylized images. I sketched and copied a little pattern for them to make a long shirt, dress and pants. Some of them started sewing the pieces together and others I took home and sewed for them so we don't get too far behind (class is only 4 weeks and I'm worried we will not be done!). Don't the dresses look so cool!!?

I can't wait to see all of this come together. I'm hoping to video the performances and post them afterwards.

Typeface and Career lesson

We just finished up the coolest project that we worked on with a parent at the school! She is involved in  National Career Development Week which is an organization that is responsible for developing standards for the career development profession and for the provision of career counseling programs and services. She made brainstorming worksheets and a power point to get the students thinking about what their strengths and interests are. Using that information they sought out professions that may be a good fit for them when they are older. It was really special to me to learn more about my kids- I was fascinated to hear what they love and seek!

My contribution to the project was teaching them about typography and specifically a typeface (a set of characters that share common design features). Each child developed a typeface based around their career choice. They made a poster about their career using their typeface.They also researched the history of their chosen career and were encouraged to use those historical facts in their poster.

The posters turned out so fantastic!! I'll upload many more photos when I have a little more time but I was itching to share these few that I took photos of yesterday.

Kids- you blow me away with your effort!! Very well done!

Mosaic fundraiser for our school Gala

 

 

Our school Gala (the PTA's event) was last night and it was so beautiful! Our PTA blew me away- their ideas and effort were incredible!!!

They were very sweet to let me have a large table right at the entrance to place the mosaics on. I made little books to accompany each mosaic that documented the process of each class making them. The PTA made cute signs for me and one dad even designed and printed an awesome sign that explained the project. It was really uplifting to have so much support.

Kids- you never cease to impress me with your work!!

Mosaic pieces- the first few finished

             The younger grades used plastic mosaic pieces and stones/glass gems for their tesserae.

                                                      Finished gluing but not grouted.

                          Pictures above are the older grades who used actual glass/broken dishes.

                        Grouted! Gorgeous!!! Thank you parents "M" and "L" for helping me!!!

 I'm bursting with pride on these mosaics!! I know in a picture you don't see the labor, the brainstorming and the wonderful process of the kids making these but for me to see the finished pieces is total joy! I'm post more later this week.

Mosaics with my 6th graders :)

We had a ridiculously fun week making mosaics! I requested that each kid bring in a plate or dish that I could break and use in our pieces so that our finished works had a little bit of each of us included. The first pieces we are making will be donated to the PTA for them to auction to help raise money for the school (thank you wonderful PTA!!!). Each class has worked together and they voted on what imagery they would use that related to our school. I have tons and tons of pictures from those classes but I'll just share my 6th grade student's work in this post.

 They have been working on mosaics for a couple of weeks now. They are doing individual as well as collaborative pieces. I taught them a quick lesson on the history of mosaics. Because the Romans portrayed their daily life in some of their mosaics I encouraged the kids to portray something about their daily life as well. The "Creeper" from the game "Minecraft" that D made into a mosaic has been a huge hit with the younger grade kids ;)....D is an immensely talented boy who has convinced me that Minecraft is artistic.

Even though I've had episodes where I thought that I should have grouted the mosaics by myself ;)- I really feel like they learned quite a bit from grouting on their own. Mixing it to the correct consistency, seeing how it preforms if the spaces between glass is too large and learning that once it dries it is HARD to get off are all part of learning how to plan and foresee problems.......I hope they can apply that to real life ;). I included photos to give you just a teeny vision of how crazy messy it gets letting kids grout on their own though!

I have blisters on my hands from doing so much breaking and cutting glass this week but it  is well worth all of the effort. I hope they are enjoying it too!!