bottlecap magnets

Suitable for 2- to 5-year-olds. Or at least, the 2- to -5 year olds in my recycled art class are doing a good job of them.

Step one: Students paint bottlecaps, inside and out. I used this opportunity to teach them about palettes and mixing colors, encouraging them not to use the color that comes right out of the bottle.

Step two: Take pictures of them making 3 or 4 funny faces.

Step three: Size the pictures down to about 1" x 1" square, then print them out.

Step four: Cut out the printed faces and cover them in clear tape or something somewhat water-resistant.

Step five: Tape them inside the bottlecaps and pour clear casting resin inside.

Step six: Wait for the casting resin to dry. When dry, attach a magnet to the back of the bottlecap.

Here are some drying:

 

You can use the extra ones they painted to have them cut out pictures of animals from magazines and paste them inside, then cover those with casting resin as well.

If you do this with very little kids, you may find that they aren't totally capable of manipulating their facial expressions to make "funny faces," but this makes the photos even cuter.

the math-art connection

Jessie and I were asked by a local elementary/middle school to be their partners in an after-school program that explores the fun side of math for 6th, 7th and 8th graders. The program is specially funded to pay the math teachers at several Baltimore City Public Schools to teach an after-school program three days a week for 8 weeks. The idea is make the program much different and more fun than regular math class, but to do activities that reinforce the concepts they're learning in school.

classes at the library

We stayed busy over a long winter break by hosting workshops at the library with the kids who hang out there after school. One day we had our expert clay teachers join us and made some ceramic jewelry and pins. They used stamps which was cool. I'm pretty inexperienced with clay, so everything they do amazes me. The kids were able to make their pieces and glaze them within an hour and a half. We took them back to the studio, fired them, and brought them back to the library for the kids to pick up. We have been doing a good job of outsourcing our programming, and promoting the heck out of the center, but our first week of classes at the center was this past week and our enrollment doesn't seem to be up at all. Which is okay: we planned fewer visual arts classes in order to focus on hosting regularly weekly classes in two schools through the Spring.

 Planning her work

Pressing stamps

Glazing a piece for a necklace