My goal this year for the summer program was to come up with some quality art and crafty projects that would take the kids more than one day to complete. The last two years we did the program over summer, we did great on that planning aspect for the first two weeks, and then for the second two, the students went home with cheap crafts that they probably lost at home.
So, for the second week, we made those 3-D cardboard letters. I did this with the younger students for two reasons...(1) to see if this project was more elementary than high school and (2) to see how well they would handle the X-acto knives for future reference! All in all, I think we had two bleeders total throughout the entire project! A few students were able to make their letters super crisp...even more so than some of the high school students when they did the project!
We started by building the letters first...the same way I had my Studio Art students create them for the Master's Paintings.
Next, they picked a single color to paint the entire letter...
And lastly, we splatter painted them! I have always wanted to do splatter painting with the students to learn about Jackson Pollock, but I know that a student will come to school in their best clothes during the school year despite how many warnings I may send home...
To make the paint we splattered with, I took acrylic and added acrylic gloss and a little bit of water to get a more drippy paint. We set the cups up on the sidewalk outside of all the colors with a brush, and the students came up one at a time to choose their colors to paint with.
I had the students line up outside in the grass, an arms length apart so they would splatter each other!
To ensure we didn't make a huge mess and splatter the side of the building, I had the students dip their brush in the paint and then wack it against their finger to get it to splatter.
They still got messy...but they loved it! Their legs were a work of art all on their own! ;)
A few finished paintings from day 1 of splatter painting...we had a few rainy days in between so students finished the other sides a few days later.
And finally...a few of the final products!
I think that this proves that the 3-D cardboard letters could be done easily with elementary age students as well as high school...the hard (or easy part) for the desired grade level is all on how you have them treat the surface. Oooh! A great idea just came to me! My elective this upcoming year is sculpture...I wonder if I could get my sculpture students to create letters in the shape and style of an object...i.e. a "P" for pencil that looks like it's made out of big pencils!!!???
