Summers rock at Abington Free Library. There are so many free programs for the kids and you can find them here! I do the Teen Journaling on Wednesday evenings and I'll share some of the ideas from that class with you later. But right now let's talk about ArtEscape. Here's how it works: I read a book to the kids (ages 6-10) and then, using that book as inspiration, they make an art project.
Maybe you'd like to do this with your kids?
The book we read last week was My Painted House, My Friendly Chicken and Me, by Maya Angelou about a Ndebele girl who lives in South Africa.
Materials
One long strip of paper: 5.5" x 17", one big circle of paper (I used wallpaper and a big bowl as a template) cut on one radius, one 8" square hunk of cardboard, markers, tape.
After we read the book, the kids and I brainstormed on pattern making. I dissected some of the patterns shown in the book illustrations and explained exactly what a pattern is, how they can relate it to music and showed them how patterns can be colored in and detailed.
The kids took off and filled their long strips of paper with patterns and colored things in. Sometimes the kids say: "I'm done." I always try to give them ideas of where to go by saying things like "That part of the pattern is so cool! I wonder what it would look like colored in." The key is to get them re-excited about something they've done and then they are open to pushing it further.
After the strips of paper (the walls of the hut) were completed, we taped them closed and then taped the cut circle for the roof and taped that onto the walls. The last part was taping the little hut to the cardboard (the yard). We only have one hour for this entire process and there is so much more you could do with this little idea. The kids were cutting doorways, drawing furniture on the inside of the strips of paper, and one kid drew a dog in his yard (see second photo). Really fun, really cheap and you learn about another culture on the way. If you use heavier paper, more cutting could happen and you wouldn't have to tape it down. They could build furniture for the inside of their huts and make rugs and curtains. Win-win rainy day fun.
Next week: Molas
