Oh the excitement of creating three dimensional art with squishy, mushy stuff. It doesn't get much better... For most anyway. I recently asked my first graders to design a character and then create a sculpture of that character out of paper mache. Many of them LOVED paper mache. Others, had to pep-talk their way through it..."I don't know how I'm getting through this, but I am!" was my favorite quote of the process. Clay, on the other hand, is by and large the all time favorite. I will definitely be ordering more clay every year so that we are doing multiple clay projects not just one or two. Lastly, painting with tempera paint...I am always shocked at the level of seriousness that my students approach painting. As soon as they see a demo on how to paint carefully and how easy it is to turn a careful drawing into a colorful painting, they are immediately invested. Granted, there are always a select few who are still more in tune with the sensory experience of painting and so need lots of reminders about not covering their drawing completely. In those cases, I don't get too picky. The sensory needs met by painting may are no less important than the creative and artistic skill gained.
On a practical note, though I am sneezing and sniffling a bit this week, I am thrilled to have discovered a great way to avoid the worst of the germs during flu season...plan messy projects! I think I've washed my hands about 20 times a day since the beginning of February. And students MUST wash their hands at least once during art which cuts down on germs in the room greatly. From here on out, every year, we will be up to our elbows in paint, clay, and paper mache between the months of December and April.
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