Creative Minds: New group, New ideas

 

We took a brief hiatus, but my Creative Minds group is back in session!
Its taken us a couple of weeks to get back into the swing of things though, perhaps due to the fact that I actually PLANNED activities. One Saturday morning, before my graduate classes started, I sat down with the schedule and planned out almost ten weeks' worth of activities. I then promptly made a shopping list and tried to procure everything we may need that I don't already have. Now that classes have started, I am really glad that I had enough foresight to plan. (Thank GOD for this snow day too, because I used most of it to read for grad school and prepare/cook in case we loose power) However the first couple "meetings of the minds" didn't go as smoothly as I planned, not that the kids cared!

Week One fell the week of MLK Jr.'s birthday. February also holds President's day, so I purchased the Mini Great Americans Murals from Art Projects for Kids. This activity was hit or miss. I had one or two who were really up to the challenge of a coloring page with oil pastels while others couldn't stand to get greasy. However, adults and students alike are amazed with the results. Our principal even wants to frame the finished products! But poor ol' Washington remains unfinished since enough students were thoroughly uninterested after the first page.
   Week Two was just a flop. Typically, I will take out a handful of materials, present a few ideas and let the students take off. If they want to complete the ideas I presented great, if they have other ideas for the materials, even better. We are "creative minds" after all!
Week Two was crayon based. I provided sand paper, crayons and irons to do prints and three hair dryer stations to melt crayons/ crayon "en-caustic." Everyone wanted to melt crayons, but I let the students who volunteered to peel crayons (not knowing what we were doing yet) go first. I had also hoped that the George Washington mural would get done, but after the previous week, I knew there was no interest. After a demo and strict safety speech, I had all three hair dryers going with teams of students helping each other for about five whole minutes. Then we blew a fuse.
While waiting for the custodian, I explained one of Week Three's projects in hopes to keep the preteens' attention. Thankfully most found themselves busy and under the kind custodian's suggestion, we kept it to two hair dryers plugged into different walls of the room. We were successful and while the kids had fun, I just laughed and hoped for better luck next week. 

Week Three was much better. Or at least I think so based on how engaged students were. Who knows, maybe they were bored out of there minds, but cool things happened from my point of view.

There were multiple painted paper options available, as the plan next week is to use the painted paper for various Valentine's Day themed crafts. We used the box tops that come with reams of paper and loaded them with construction paper and paint covered marbles. Old school "marbled" paper! I also cut up some paper towel tubes and showed students how to fold them into a heart shape for stamping. Finally, we brought back the hair dryers and kept it to two going at once. Below is a student's "en-caustic" after adding water color and dabbing with paper towel for texture. Can you tell his favorite color is blue?

"En-caustic" in progress. This student has a great eye for color. Ignore the smock... my boyfriend donated all his old plaid shirts to the art room.

Now that we seem to have our routine back, I am looking forward to what these folks create. I have grand plans for paper mache and perhaps some Chihuly inspired sculpture in between holiday crafts and silliness.

Creative Minds Tempera and India Ink "Batik"

I always LOVE this activity!
I knew after the first meeting of Creative Minds that this group of kids could handle the long term dedication needed to see this to fruition. I first did this with a group of elementary school kids in preparation for our first ever "After School Art Show." The image above, of Venus fly traps, is probably still my favorite. (Side story, this student was in 4th grade when she did this. I then had her as an art student in 8th grade when I was finally hired in the public schools. I now see her from time to time at the high school. Side, side note, five years later after I no longer work for the program, the "After School Art Show" still continues each spring!)

So I probably found this idea over five years ago at Kinder Art.
Since then, I have done this with three groups of kids, two of which were after school art clubs. When groups only meet once a week, this can take up to a month to complete. So heres whats up:

1. Plan a design. I typically talk about motif and random pattern. Some of the most interesting works have been just simple shapes.
2. Draw the design on larger paper using chalk. I have always used the standard 12x18 manila, school grade paper. 
3. Paint the design with tempera paint paying careful attention NOT to paint on the chalk lines. It is also a good idea to apply the paint heavily. Not so heavy it cracks when it dries, but heavy keeping in mind that some may wash away later.
4. When the paint is dry, evenly cover with semi diluted India ink. Adding some water I think helps to wash it away later. When applying, be careful not to "scrub" the ink into the layer of paint. I typically use a 2-3 inch wide brush so that only a few lines of ink are needed to fill the page. Due to the staining nature of the ink too, I have kids paint at a station.
5. After the ink is dry, run a faucet to warm water. Using a board to support the page, have the warm water run over the inked page. I have used lunch trays in the past. If needed, use a paint brush to gently remove the ink. I reiterate to students that the more wet the page becomes, the more fragile it is. So they need to be super careful when rinsing the ink. I also explain that the more they rinse, the more paint that is under the ink, will rinse off too.

  

A handful of my Creative Minds kids are at the point of needing to rinse the ink. Hopefully I will have more images tomorrow.

UPDATE:
Below are a handful of the final products.
Unfortunately, I think most of these are examples of washing off too much ink. In fact the student who created the first design told me that she felt like she washed off too much. Still a beautiful image though!

Water and fire

The seasons

detail of above

Creative Minds Wks 1 & 2

In addition to starting a new position at the high school and my two graduate courses, I have taken on an after school club called Creative Minds. For the last few years, the school's secretary along with one other person, ran the club, doing a variety of crafts and even cooking. Between her duties in the office and the club, it became too much. Recognizing the importance of such a club for middle school kids, I offered to keep it running on my own.
The kids are great! I have had some rough weeks lately, but I look forward to hanging out with my Creative Minds kids each week. Here's what we have been up to so far:

The first week we designed silhouetted windows.

• We started by using watered down Elmer's glue to layer pieces of tissue paper onto a white page. Next, we cut a frame out of black paper to look like a window. Some were traditional like this one, while others created different outlines. 
• Finally, students used the remaining black paper/ scraps to cut out bats, cats, pumpkins, trees and haunted houses. These pieces were then glued into the open window panes. 

The above image is an unfinished example.

The following week we used scratch board and white paper, inspired by  Art Projects for Kids Scratch Tree. 

Some kept with the Halloween theme while others, like to top two, were inspired by video games and cartoon characters.

For the last two weeks, Creative Minds started painting designs for an India ink batik. I love how these always turn out. This will be the third time I have used this lesson. The black of the ink makes the designs really bold and graphic. The kids are always in mourning almost that they have to paint over their designs with ink, but thrilled when they get to wash it all away. I will be sure to post after Thanksgiving break.