Winter Camp Day 5

Sorry about the delay in getting this last day up!  It's been a crazy few weeks, with New Year's, spending time with various families, and with spraining my ankle. =(  That part wasn't so fun.  But alas, the final day of winter camp and what we did!

Our day started with glass painting.  The owner of Paint Some Pottery, Sharlene (come see her amazing artwork at the store sometime!) told me a recipe for painting on glass--acrylic paint and glue.  We didn't have very much glue, so I added some ModPodge (Our love of Modpodge PSP is insane! But who can blame us?!) figuring it would help seal the acrylic.  We painted on glass jars (similar to canning jars) that were bought cheaply at a local store.  The jars came with a nifty candle holder lid that features a seashell cutout, so we went with a beach theme.  We brainstormed ideas of what you might see at the beach, and then I set out the primary colors (red, blue, and yellow!), and we talked about how to make the primary colors into secondary colors if we would need to (mix two primaries together!).  I love the creativity; they all turned out different despite a common theme.

 After painting, we worked on Mosaics!  I cut some rectangles out of cardboard before hand.  We discussed what mosaics were; I was surprised how much the students know.  A mosaic is when you assemble small pieces of a chosen material (usually glass, tile, or stones--but you could use almost anything!) to create an image or design.  In high school, I created a mosaic using glass that I had to cut with a cutting tool and hand-built ceramic tiles. We used grout to hold it together.  With the students this week, we went a little simpler. We used ready-made ceramic tiles, smooth glass stones, and some strong glue. If I did this again, I would give the students a bigger piece of cardboard, color the background first, and use smaller pieces.  I would really love to do this project with an older group, to be able to use the materials that I used in high school; that is a great art form that many young artists do not get to experience! Before they began, we talked about making a simple shape or symbol, so that it would be easily recognized. This was a difficult project, but we had some success with it. 

by this point, the students were tired and ready for their break.  I really wanted them to add more to their mosaics, but I didn't want to push them to their breaking point.  It's important to understand students' needs.  So we took our break. Afterwords, we went on to our final project. I decided that instead of pushing them to work on the mosaics more (which I knew would elicit many cries of "but mine is dooooonnnnneeeeee!" ) we would do something fun.  In the school setting, I probably would have spread the project over a couple of days to avoid the lack of motivation to finish. It's a lot for one day.  However, winter camp is about one day, take home projects (with the exception of clay). 

We didn't have a whole lot of time, so I pulled a quick project I had done out of my head, and quickly found some fun materials for us to use (See the  Veteran's Day Stars I made with my Home School Students).  I changed the project by having them cut their star pieces from foam. We used foam appliques, sequins, and rhinestones. Instead of standing stars, we made them hanging stars!

The students happily went home with 3 projects today. Their happy faces made me happy. (And it seemed to make their parents happy, I heard many parents saying that they couldn't wait to sign up for summer camp!)