Creating Earth Day sculptures from recyclable materials @WBCL

Earth day sculptures from recyclable materials

Earth day creativity was amazing. I took a couple of boxes of caps and rings and assorted plastic and cardboard shapes, set them out on the table and let the group go wild. Amazing diversity. Some had moving elements, some had special significance to the maker. Great way for parents and kids to create together.

Making furry groundhogs @ WBCL

Not your usual groundhog project! 

Using 1/4 page of construction paper we drew a fat little groundhog and then glued the 2 sides together with a stick in the middle. 
The kids were told they could cut him out or not--the real project was in making him furry. I had thin doll hair that most cut up then glued down to the groundhog. I also had some fur coat lining that others used. We added google eyes and a bead nose to finish them off. Pretty cute!!

Creating projects with beads and altoids tins @WBCL

I have such a stash of beads and people give me more plus I have been known to buy a bag here and there like the beautiful gold ones from Oriental Trading that doing a project with them is always a creative surprise. The kids and adults are told at the beginning that these are what ever has been thrown into the bag left from other projects so who knows what is there. I gave the tins a quick coat of flat paint then put out beads in bowls and plastic lids of Aleene's tacky glue. There was some trading between tables to get a specific bead here and there too. The results are really nice and it is easy for kids of any age to do this with help from an adult--some of whom did their own boxes.

Making a mosaic tile @ WBCL

This is one of the best mosaic projects I have had the kids do. It involved making a design on the back of a tile using tile adhesive then filling the surrounding space with pebbles to make the design stand out. The kids quickly figured out what tiles would make their design and then picked out the stones that would make it look best. Lots of parents with fingers in this one too. Even the youngest kids got a good tile done.

Batman collages @ WBCL

In honor of the 75th anniversary of Batman comics we did a project that mimicked a theatre marque poster. The kids covered the paper with strips of comics then cut out a batman mask and mounted it over a spotlight strip complete with bubble and bat. Some of the kids were quite meticulous in selecting background pictures and cut around each frame to choose exactly what went on the background.

Draw a tiger @ WBCL

we again used the grid drawing method and the tigers were fantastic. the kids then colored them with pencils.

Create your own thing from recycled materials @WBCL

I never know what will appear on my doorstep to use in this class or what will strike the kids imagination but with several bags of goodies and a bit of glue we began. Milk cartons and spools were like gold tonight. Upper right corner--a cow complete with udders. there were games, a cart that rolled, a bird feeder, a pond with a waterfall and so many more cute ideas. I ask "who brought their imagination tonight?" and all hands went up. I think they are right.

Creating art from rolled paper @WBCL

This  is a project I did at school last year and once you get the kids going making paper rolls they can see all kinds of possibilities. I cut up pages of ads and magazines so we had lots of bright colored material to work with. I suggested that the rolls bend or can be lined up to make frames and let them create.

Drawing and Painting trees @ WBCL

It is always a gamble to try to get kids to paint trees. You mostly have very thick trunks with what looks like a hand coming out the top and pompom tops. This was a "Paint with Me" project so the kids could follow along and achieve a more or less tree-ish tree. We got better pompoms but a good distribution. a few kids added squirrels and birds and knots on the tress. Super fun project.

Drawing and painting winter birds @WBCL

This was a draw along with me lesson (see drawing above) which worked very well last night. I get some fairly young kids in the class and have been doing more draw/paint sessions of late. They love it and they are pretty good at it. The parents do help with the drawings as needed but the kids hold their own. We also had colored reference pictures to consult when we painted the birds. I chose cardinals and jays because they have similar shapes but dramatically different colors. we even did a bit of color mixing and added a few details like sky or branches to them.

Bottle caps and other findings make really fun art @WBCL

We have done projects before with a variety of bottle capsAnd they are always interesting to work on and see what the kids come up with. This time was no different except that I had a number of other small plastic objects to put into the mix for them. We started with an 8 x 8 piece of cardboard as it is rigid enough to use for the project. They selected the caps, Beads, and bits of plastic that they wanted to use on their project. At some point one of the moms asked about glitter and several of the girls chimed in "oh yes." It is interesting to see how differently every project turned out.

Making Columbus’s ships @WBCLs

 We learned a bit of history, talked about Columbus, and created a picture of Columbus'I ships coming to America. Most of the kids didn't know anything about Columbus and the idea of him sailing over 500 years ago went over their heads. We were able to pull a couple of books and look up the information about him and his ships. This is another project where we were able to incorporate recycled materials and donated items.

Making fish masks from recycled containers @WBCL

 Masks are always fun to make because they take on a life of their own. I was given a large pile of squarish plastic tubs and thought they would make great fish. We started with a sheet of yellow paper and instructions to make eyes in a variety of ways. I also showed them how to make puffy lips and let them do their fish "their way." It always works. some added streamers for fins, most just worked on the face and had lots of opinions on the shape of things. It used up some of my stash of odd paper pieces but not a lot.
We meet every Wed. at 6pm for a family time creating crafts projects and art work.

Drawing dragons @WBCL

I was give some heavy Crayola paper with fluorescent markers by a neighbor earlier this year and thought we would use them on this project. Perfect! I had all the kids draw along with me to create their dragon on one side of the paper. Great drawings by all from the wings to nose to tail. Then we colored them in using the markers. The markers develop over time so they are not too bright or glowing in the first few minutes but when they get going -- wow--the design just shines.

Origami success at art camp @ WBCL

We then tried a dog face with ears. Lastly we let them chose 2-3 sheets of the pre-marked paper to take home and do more folding. I had several books from the library available for check-out and they all went home with the aspiring artists. 


The Arts mini-camp is held at the Wells Branch Community Library and taught by Dianne Koehler.

When I was given a pack of origami paper last winter, I knew we had to try this at camp. About half of the kids said they'd done origami at some point but no one could do it without directions or a book. We decided to make simple items so everyone would be able to be successful. 


Keighla led them through information about Origami and the kinds of papers we had the began the folds to make a cup and a hat.