Spring is here! Wet your plants...

As the end of the year approaches, I, along with my colleague and friend, Lynn are charged with decorating the stage for the spring music performances. This year we've taken a traditional approach, but the kids in concert decoration club were intent on blasting out of the realm of two dimensional painting and into the three dimensional world of sculpture. This was extremely convenient, since the five canvas panels we usually paint had cracked with layered paint to the point of no return. We brainstormed with the children, mostly about practicality. How would we make 3D decorations? What problems might arise? What will we make them out of?

I particularly enjoy advising concert decoration club. I get to watch kids think. Really think. They think about creation, not just what color comes next, or what step they are up to, like in the classroom. We decided together, that these flowers needed to be light, so the kids took a club period to research ideas for paper sculpture on Pinterest. They printed several ideas from various blogs and project based sites. They decided on a rolled paper sculpture. The site they originally visited had the instructions for a small wreath. Challenge accepted!

Students began by rolling a myriad of paper cones of all different sizes. We decided to back these on heavy corrugated cardboard in order to provide stability. We walked to CVS and asked for some old hanging signs, to use as this material and they were more than happy to oblige. Students then hot glued each of the cones in a circular, random pattern. We wanted an organic look, so the random pattern worked well. Flowers made with a more regular pattern came out mechanical looking.

 After creating a variety of flowers (and running out of room to store them) we began to think about color. The logical answer was spray paint. We sprayed each flower with two or three colors, at a great distance, which created a tie dye effect.

For the centers, we added crumbled tissue. Next, we had to hang them....We tried wire, and they fell. We tried more wire, and they fell once again. Finally we added some t-pins to the mix and were successful! We got an awful lot of complements on these, and the kids felt super successful. There is something to be said for making artwork intended for community enjoyment.