Rainbow Tree

If there was one thing I really wanted to achieve while teaching at this summer school, it was getting something on the wall that the children could say was theirs. The school had recently moved locations, so the art room was bare (both in things on the wall and in supplies). To inspire the kids I showed them a picture of a wonderful display I spotted on Pinterest here, of a tree design covered with coloured circles decorated by the children in the school.

Of course my kids didn't want to colour in circles, they wanted to colour in rabbits and dolphins and flowers - so be it. We also discussed colour mixing, so we looked at using different shades of the same colour on a circle, and hopefully having this on the wall will give them a reference when they're trying to remember their colour wheel. Nothing like as good as the original, but not bad for our little Bulgarian summer school.

Robots in disguise

During summer school I've mostly struggled to find things that will keep young boys occupied for more that 5 minutes. Having had a chat with my partner's mum, who raised two boys, I went in newly inspired with a collection of household junk and a couple I made earlier, and we made robots.

This. Was. Brilliant. Not only did they ALL want a robot (even the girls, they made princess robots - of course), they all asked nicely for help and worked on them for 30 minutes - 1 hour without getting bored and trying to climb of the window. Then they played with them in the playground after class. Magic.

Can't go wrong with finger painting

You really can't go wrong with finger painting with young children. My little summer school kids giggled and squirmed when I told them to put their hands in the paint. Brilliant fun, and some were really creative too!

Colour mixing with kids

Over the next few weeks I will be teaching art and crafts at a summer school here in Bulgaria. The groups are mixed ages and abilities (in both art and speaking English), and fairly rebellious, so it will be a challenge to find activities that suit everyone.

One of the best things I've tried is the no-mess painting idea that I've seen recommended for very young children. Actually, this didn't hold the attention of my baby class, but the older kids (aged 10ish) really enjoyed it. I think this was because we could discuss the principles of colour mixing at the same time, something only a few knew much about. We looked at an image of a rainbow, and then I put two primary colours each in clear freezer bags and asked the children to guess which colour they would make when mixed. Then they tried it out, and we organised them in the window in rainbow order. Hopefully they will now remember how to make each secondary colour. And brown of course, when mixing paints on paper we also made a lot of brown.

Feather appliqué

I'm really pleased with how my current project, decorating canvas bags, is turning out. Think I might have to keep this one!

Magnetic bunting

I bought some really nice fabrics to make proper bunting last year, and I've not really done much with the scraps. Having made some fridge magnets recently I thought I'd try making some tiny bunting for the fridge. This is how it turned out (I have a crowded fridge..):

The bunting was really easy to make. I just used PVA to glue little magnets, cut from a craft magnet-roll, onto the back of each fabric triangle. The magnet is self-adhesive, but it's not sticky enough so I used the glue as well. Then I glued twine to the front, and also stuck a magnet to each end of the twine.

The cat particularly liked this project. Think I'll have to keep the bunting on the top part of the fridge...