Gumball machines complete!!!

We wrapped up an awesome week of woodworking camp! As I look at these final pictures it fascinates me to remember all of the work I saw that led up to the completion of these machines. Watching the kids set up crazy towers of supplies to hold a piece into place that they wanted to glue, watching them make their preliminary sketches and seeing how they had to modify their idea (or not), the layers of paint they added, gluing details on the last day when I could see that at the end of the week they were starting to get tired ;)- SO much went into these.

 

I said in my last post how impressed I was at this group of kids and I'm going to say it again- AWESOME group of creative little minds!!! Plus my sweet middle school students who helped me as counselors during camp. I'm blessed to have been with you all this week!!

 

 

Woodworking camp-building

 We wrapped up day 3 of woodworking camp. The kids were very excited to build! I heard a lot of them figuring out ways to solve the problem of making their machines look like their sketched ideas or finding ways to modify. I love watching them start painting!!!!

Beautiful character sketch!

Adorable puffer fish- her actual machine looks so much like this sketch.

Man, there is a lot of stuff on those tables! This class cleans up great though ;).

Woodworking Camp!

:) Woodworking camp started this week! My class is so precious!! They make all of the planning I have done to make this camp possible worth every second!!

 

You might not be able to tell from these pictures but we are making wood, fully functioning gumball machines. I can't take credit for the design- I found the instructions on Instructables posted by a high school shop educator. Genius!

 

 Because my kids are elementary aged they certainly couldn't operate a drill press and scroll saw so I prepped all of the gumball bases for them before camp started. Depending on the age level I'm teaching them beginning woodworking skills with a variety of tools. We are also working on understanding simple machines, developing well thought out characters and personification.

 

The first two days of camp have been a lot of prepping, brainstorming and writing. Watching them develop their ideas is always very interesting to me.

 

The following pictures are from Monday's class. The kids designed a woodworking art journal to record their sketches and reflections. They also (very patiently) worked on sanding their gumball machine bases with sandpaper as well as files.

Doing a great job getting the sandpaper in the gumball holes!

Beautiful journals!!

Clever, this student layered the stickers to make those little flowers.

All of the stickers I passed out were a hit ;)!!

Editing and adding to our prints.....and becoming a "curator"

 

 

Some pics of the kids adding final details to finish off their prints. We talked a lot about editing and what a curator is ;). SO beautiful!!!!!

 

Inventing and printmaking our Beasts!!

In this printmaking project we are still learning about each grade level's International Studies focus. I started by reading a folk tale from each grade's specific focus. Fourth grade is Medieval Times, second grade is Greek Mythology and the Renaissance, first grade is Asia, etc.

 

After we read the folk tales and practiced visualizing, we talked about what real life trials people in our International Studies culture may have faced. For Medieval Times we talked about how they were constantly engaged in warfare, how medicine was still developing and how the Plague affected their lives. For Greek Mythology we discussed how hard it was to communicate in such a mountainous region. We began to see that the folk tales we read sometimes reflected the real trials that their cultures faced.

 

I gave each child a brainstorming sheet and a real trial their International Studies culture faced.

 

They had to invent a Beast (mythological creature) that lived in their
International Studies culture's time. The Beast needed to have some power or ability to help their culture survive one of the trials or hardships they faced. I allowed it to be completely fantastical. I didn't care how unrealistic or magical it was.....but I wanted them to use fantasy to "fix" a real problem. Loved, loved, loved their solutions!!!

 

We sketched and then transferred our Beasts to Styrofoam printing blocks. The kids made several prints of their Beasts. They should be very proficient in pulling a perfect print after all of our printmaking sessions!!

 

 

Visualizing!

 

 

After we ended our International Studies banner we continued with that focus and entered into a printmaking project.

I wanted to practice the reading strategy, visualizing. It's my favorite because visualizing is so important for problem solving in art (and really other area's of our lives as well).

I realized when I started reading to the kids how little of that I've done this year- I missed it!!! Apparently so did they ;). Even the fifth graders seemed riveted.

I found a folk tale from each of the grade specific International Studies focuses. I read the folk tale, not letting the kids see the pictures in the book. Every few pages I would stop and they would draw what they pictured in their minds. Easy peasy.

Seriously. Cute. Stuff.

I'll explain in the next post how this connects to my lesson plan ;).

 

 

a third grader visualizing a Norse myth about Loki

a second grader visualizing a Greek myth