I teach art class to elementary school children. I’ve been doing it for a long time now – almost twenty years. I do it because I love children, and I love art. Teaching children to foster their creative instincts is so rewarding, especially when I see the joy they get from working intensely on their projects, and the pride they have when they show the class their finished product.
I especially like the collage project I teach once a year. During this project, I tell the kids that they can bring in whatever they want, but it has to be able to stick to paper, at least with Elmer’s glue. Some of the kids get pretty crazy, wanting to bring in action figures and sticks and leaves they find at recess, but others are more sedate, and are satisfied with the choice of heavyweight paper I provide. I tell the school about the custom paper size I need and they deliver it. I encourage the kids to cut the heavyweight paper and paste it to make a sort of rainbow collage.
The final results vary, and even though I have already chosen a custom paper size, I’ve seen some projects that wind up being twice the size of the original paper I chose. In any event, every year it’s always something different and that’s another reason why I love it!
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