Watching my students look through their art books is a magical experience. To see them recollect the projects and feel pride for their accomplishments is beyond rewarding. At the end of each week when the large collaborations were dry I spent time cutting them down so each student would have a piece to represent their contribution.
The keepsake books were a simple three-hole punch with brad construction. When art was smaller than the 9×12 dimension of the book we mounted it on heavy weight construction paper. My favorite is the heavy weight assorted bright pack by Tru-Ray. The colors are vivid and the thickness is nice.
Each class spent time printing their hand on each other’s cover. This was symbolic of the amazing teamwork.
To honor fall we did a wonderful leaf project that I discovered on one of my favorite blogs, Chocolate Muffin Tree. Before embarking on making our leaves I focused the group with a fun and simple read, Fall Leaves Fall.
I prepped leaves in different sizes. First cutting them out from large coffee filters and then drawing on the veins with permanent marker. As suggested by The Chodolate Muffin Tree we used Mr. Sketch markers along with a combination of other washable crayola markers. The smelly markers are a great nostalgic blast from my past as well as many other parents in the studio. It was great fun smelly and drawing at the same time.
This is a great drawing project for toddlers because it’s not necessary to completely fill in the leaves with the marker and lines, dots, and doodles end up looking fabulous once they bleed during the water step.
Below you can see students in spray mode. I found it’s necessary to pull the leaf once it’s hits full saturation. You can actually wash the marker right out of the leaf if you aren’t careful.
Early in the week we had sunny mornings. These are some leaves hanging to dry outside. These look even better taped onto a sunny window and I thought they’d look stunning in a mobile too.
Happy Autumn to all!
