Art Club

After putting it off for months we finally did it... we had our first art club! Ms. Stafford and I crammed 40 students into her art room and let the wild rumpus start! Our applications were open to 4th and 5th grade students who had an interest in art. We met weekly in the art room for just over an hour.

Our music teacher, Ms. Ortiz, gave us the idea for our project. She suggested that we create props for her upcoming 1st grade performance about animals. We used Eric Carle as our inspiration and watched a short video about his process and then set to work on creating beautiful textured paper. We decided to bend the rules when it came to color and make our animals vary from their original color, but kept all of the animals identifiable by shapes and physical characteristics.

We set up multiple painting stations and one marbling station. The marbled paper was the biggest hit! Our second week, we began determining which students had which animals and started drawing out their designs. The following week, the students were ready to begin constructing their animals using the textured paper they had made on the first week. 

We had a range of artistic talents, but the coolest thing of all was seeing how much these kids loved art. They didn't complain if they had paint on their fingers. They didn't whine if their artwork didn't turn out just perfect. They were open to my critisisim and offered advice to their peers. It was amazing.

An elephant in the making.

B is for Bufalo.

Adding black made everything 'pop'!

The start of one very amazing jackal.

This horse was, of course, Ms. Stafford's favorite.

Finishing touches on the narwhal.

V is for Vulture. 

 

Our last art club was a celebration! We screen printed our own Art Club shirts and then the students decorated them with puff paint and fabric paint galore. 

What party is complete without cupcakes?

Adding puff paint to the freshly screen printed shirts.

 Our finished pieces came out beautifully. I hung them on display at the front of the school. They remind me of a box of animal crackers, which I feel suits them perfectly.

A finished jackal.

Tiger!

Shouldn't he just be at the circus?

I started adding the letters to each of the animals. It really needed another graphic behind it to make the animals stand out.

Art club was a HUGE Success! Ms. Stafford and I loved working with these artsy kids! Would I do it again? Absolutely! My biggest regret is that we included 40 kids! At first, we "just couldn't say no", but then quickly realized that we had kids joining just because they didn't have anything better to do, and not because they really enjoyed art. I had one or two students who would forget about art club, show up late and want to leave early. This of course, set those students appart from their peers who really wanted to be there.

It really was a great experience! I look forward to another afterschool club next year. I'm not sure if it will be an art club or another creative endeavor. Possibly a sewing club, or a painting club for ladies. As long as we don't have 40 kids, I'd say it would be fine.

Ta-Da!!!